For The Love Of Port

2009 Port Gala
Friday, January 30th, Madeira tasting
Flight 2: 1907 D'Oliveiras Malvazia, 1905 D'Oliveiras Verdelho, 1952 Leacock's Verdelho

1907 D'Oliveiras Malvazia

More of the typical Madeira VA on the nose, but with a rich background.

Some olive to the flavor. Not as sweet as expected. (I'd heard that Malvazia/Malmsey is supposed to be the sweetest style of Madeira.)

Lots of VA on this one and the characteristic green-tinged rim showing the age.
Almost distilled lime juice on the nose backed with caramel and coffee.

Very high acid (again) followed by the warmth of balanced alcohol wrapped around apricot juice. Still showing bright fruit and finishing with a concentrated lime juice.

Still a young-tasting wine that hasn't fully matured to show its Malmsey character - again needs time (it's only 100 years old!).
Agree - doesn't show like a Malmsey - more of a Bual in style.

I saw a slight red tint in this one. It had some caramel and was very nice. While Alan mentions the acid, I found several of the other madeiras of the evening to be too tart for my liking, but not this one. It was in fact one of my favorites.

Ah, now we're starting to have some fun -classic, Bual-ish sweetness, rock candy, caramel - good depth and complexity, finish dominated by flavor rather than acidity - 92 pts - 3rd favorite of the flight

I had this again this past Saturday night and the bottle showed a bit brighter acidity and seemed to carry more age than our bottle. I stil prefer the Bual and Verdelho from this vintage, compared to the Malvazia.