For The Love Of Port

[Madeira @ Patroon (NYC)]: Dark, opaque coffee color. Biggest nose of the tasting. Another super-rich wine. They seem to be putting all the big guns at the end of the tasting. Almost too intense to smell. Truckloads of rich “brown” flavors… nutmeg, chocolate, coffee, caramel, truffles, sherry, etc. A wine so unctuous, that it’s almost hard to swallow it all. After several minutes, I could slurp my tongue between my gums and lips… and I could still taste the wine. A totally shocking wine experience. A WOW wine if there ever was one. (99 points)
10/6/1999

Thanks for the notes, Marco. Filed in my books

Luckily I have four bottles of the 1802 and plenty of the others also for my old age..

Reidar Andersen wrote:Thanks for the notes, Marco. Filed in my books

Luckily I have four bottles of the 1802 and plenty of the others also for my old age..

We need to taste together!

Marco,

Thanks for this report. I noticed you were stingy and scored the 1802 a measly 99 points. Two questions:

a. what kept you from giving it 100 points ... what could have been better about it to earn that extra point?

b. was this the best Madeira you've ever experienced to date?

Yes, it is the best Madeira I remember having, although it was about 10 years ago... you never know, sometimes an older experience takes on greater importance as times goes by, as we tend get sentimental over time.

I'm not sure why I gave it 99 instead of 100... I guess I felt so hesitant about pulling the 100 point trigger, having just recently started tasting really serious Madeiras at that time.

Marco,

Though it may have been the only 100 you ever may/will experience , supplies of those wines are drying out..

Reidar