What Have I Bought?

[Al B.]

In a dusty old corner of a seldom visited wine shop in the middle of rural England, I found a bottle of port that was seeping slightly. The bottle had a label on it, but the label was so blackened with age that nothing could be read on it. We haggled a little and I left the shop with this and a number of other bottles and a smile on my face.

From the shape and manufacturing style of the bottle, I would say it orginates from the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Why am I posting this note in the Madeira Forum? Because when I got home and had the chance to study the label very closely at varying angles and in different lighting conditions, I could just make out the ghost of the words:

OLD RESERVE
MADEIRA
BLANDY BROTHERS
Madeira

There is also a small neck label, but this just cannot be read. (I'll try and post a picture of the bottle in due course)

I don't buy very much Madeira and this is not a particular bottling that I remember seeing discussed on the forum in the past. Is anyone able to tell me what I have bought? I plan to open the bottle this weekend and would like to know what I am going to be drinking.

Thanks,

Alex

[Roy Hersh]

No mention of a grape or vintage whatsoever?

If not, it is just a very standard bottling, similar to some of the fanciful names used on Port bottles for their inexpensive Ruby or Tawny Ports. I have had some very good and some miserable experience of this sort over the past years. In fact, I opened an old bottle of Cossart Gordon, labeled: No. 65, London Particular, Golden, Rich and Full Flavoured Madeira -- two weeks ago and I have never experienced a worse smelling bottle of ANYTHING. These get lots of bottle stink. The good news is that I've only once had a bad bottle of Blandy's Madeira, so hopefully yours will be pleasant. I would highly recommend at least 2-3 days of decanting yours, if it appears to be a bottle where the wine has been inside it for decades, which is what this sounds like. They become much more pleasant IF they have it in 'em to do that at all.

[Eric Ifune]

Is it possible the variety is obscured by dirt/label/worn off?

[João Rico]

From Blandy's, that wine is probably a 5 years old made from Tinta Negra Mole.
I had 2 months ago a wine from Blandy's, with another name used for esporting, with that Old Reserve label and i found it to be just a 5 years TNM.
That couls be the same. My bottle was little older than yours.


JR

[Roy Hersh]

I will be visiting Blandy's in 2 weeks, so if you really want to know exactly, please email me with the photo of your bottle and I will find an exact answer for you.

[Al B.]

I'm pretty sure that there was no variety or vintage on the label, though the label was very faded. I suspect that the suggestion that this is an entry level Negra Mole basic Blandy wine, intended to be drunk shortly after being bottled.

I did decant the contents of the bottle and was surprised at the fact that they had left a very firmly attached skin of sediment on the inside of the bottle. There was also a fair amount of sediment in the filter paper that I used in the decant. The cork was also short, but might have been branded, although any branding that there was had faded long ago.

Sadly, the wine was just not drinkable. Right from the start there was an unpleasant bitterness in the wine and this did not disappear with 3 days in the decanter. On the nose, it smelt of beef bouillon and in the mouth it was thin, acidic without any sweetness or fruit. It did have a long length - but not one that was pleasant to experience!

I have very little experience with madeira, but to me this was a dead wine that was faded beyong the limit of drinking. Worth a gamble, though.

Thanks for all your thoughts.

Alex

PS - my better half is a keen environmentalist. The result of her passion for the environment is that the bottle went off to the recycling depot while I was at work today!

[Roy Hersh]

Thanks for the report back. I trust your palate Alex and am not surprised that this was DOA. However, I often times use the beef bouillon or bouillon cube as an apt descriptor in some bottles of very sound Madeira. However, one positive note does not make for a fine wine experience. Appreciate your update!