For The Love Of Port

Hi all!

Just got my hands on some bottles of the Cask 44a Malvasia from Barbeito and wow, what a lovely young wine it is! I'm quite fond of the single vineyard wines and single casks from Barbeito (amongst them a lovely 1997 Single vineyard TNM) but this one were hard to find - maybe because of the miniscule production of 1026 half liters bottles ?

The Malvasia grapes were picked at the vineyards of São Martinho and amongst the 32 casks of the 2000 Malvasia the 44a ended up as being bottled as a single cask in January 2008.

Bright straw appearance; no colourings added in the Barbeito wines should be mentioned.

Almost like perfumed grape juice this wine catches me right away! The oak is there (decanting is recommended to get rid of the primarily dominating oak) and so is also some orange peel, fudge and matchsticks. Sulphur you think on the last scent, but I am not sure. More of a feature from the soil. However, it is an elegant bouquet with lots of freshness and grape aromas! Now, three days after opening and decanting a most seducing scent of white peaches has been added!

Even if it's less than a decade old it is still showing some complexity in the mouth. What strikes me is the balance between acidity and the grapey sweetness. Delicious! No signs of oxidation in the taste but some scents of raisins and figs can be detected. Flowery and long, long extract filled finish.

The sadness in realising just a mere 1000 bottles has been produced, and most likely quite a substantial amount of them already gone, it's still a joy knowing I hade the honour of tasting it and have 4 bottles left

I rated it a 93.

Have a nice week end all!

best,

Niklas

Thanks for that Niklas.. Have reading your blogs. Luckily I understand Swedish

Hi Reidar,

That's the great thing with us neigbouring countries

But from now on i will solely write in English since unfortunately the Swedish interest for Madeira is more or less extinct! You Norwegians are far more interested....maybe i should move?

Best,

Niklas

Hei Niklas

Maybe extict here also.. I am not sure, but I don't know anyone no matter what I do...

Reidar

Hello again Reidar,

Well, you at least have more Madeira to choose from in Norway than we do. That's a start!

But Lilleström isn't THAT far from Stockholm. We should keep that in mind if we sometime feel too lonely in our mutual passion named Madeira

Best from Niklas who tonight is sipping on the Cask 44a and for comparison's sake a 10 YO Verdelho Barbeito.

Hello Niklas

Will keep that in mind...Maybe someone else in this forum is passing Stockholm ?

Reidar

Hi Niklas,
great blog, and fun to read and even more Madeiras that I had never seen before... And no I do not speak or read Swedish, but the somewhat sketchy translation of google was good enough to understand most of it. I really appreciate that you are going to write in English from now on and don't feel bad about it, same thing happened with the MWG... The bunch of loyal Madeira wine followers is just to small...

Niklas,

Thanks for making you last blog post in English. I look forward to continuing to read it.

-Scott

Thanks guys!

It was an easy and inevitable step for me. Sweden and Madeira simply is writing for a handful of afficionados.

So, continuing on the Barbeito track; one more to come now...

Niklas