For The Love Of Port

I comment all of the time how central Florida is a madeira desert.

I visited a wine shop today that NEVER appeared to be open. The wine shop had a significant selection in terms of quantity and much of it high-end, but the whole store seemed to be very disorganized.

"Do you carry any vintage madeira?"

I was lead to the back room, also quite disorganized, with quite a selection of port and vintage port, with one lone bottle of madeira - Barbeito Cristovao Columbo 10 year bual.
:!:
I was quite surprised as I had never heard of this description before. More of a surprise was the price - $58.00.

Does anyone have any information on this bottling? The price seems high to me.

Joe D'Achille
Orlando

Hey Joe,

I found the same bottle at the Petty's here in north Melbourne for $46 a bottle, and I believe they use a standard 33% markup. But it is a nice 10 year old. It's one of the few madeira's I've seen in Florida. Others I've seen are the RWC's 3 normal historic series for around the same price, and Broadbent 10 y.o. Malmsey. I end up drinking the Barbeito one the most, and a bottle of Henriques & Henriques 15 y.o. Malmsey that I found in Viriginia, which is getting very low.

I wonder which Madeira importers can ship to Florida.