Blandy's 1962 Sercial

[Brian C.]

I found this one selling at a store nearby for $82. Has anybody tried this before? Is this a good value for this particular bottle?

[David Spriggs]

I found this one selling at a store nearby for $82. Has anybody tried this before? Is this a good value for this particular bottle?

This is an excellent price. Binny's has it for $89.99, but then world-wide the price goes up to around $175. So this is half price.

[Brian C.]

Yep, it's a Binny's near me. I saw on wine-searcher that it was a lot more. Maybe it was the price you mention, but either way, still cheaper than what I saw on wine-searcher. I'm not sure how much I can gauge worldwide average price based on a small handful of stores that are identified on that site. As cheap as that seems, sometimes I have to question the reason for the apparent discount. Is there something I don't know?

[Brian C.]

Well, I scooped the second to last bottle today at my local Binny's. I had about $50 on a gift card, so that made it a much easier purchase to make.

[Roy Hersh]

I've not had the wine and I love Sercial. Blandy's does a really good job with the dry style as well as the sweet. Speaking of sweet, that price is darn good. Having just scouted out all pricing on the island for available stock, that is a stellar price for a wine of that age. That said, I've not had that particular bottling before, but can't imagine it would not be worth at least that much in drinking pleasure with a 2 day decant.

[David Spriggs]

Well, I scooped the second to last bottle today at my local Binny's. I had about $50 on a gift card, so that made it a much easier purchase to make.

You did well! That's a total steal!

[Brian C.]

Thanks, guys.

Roy's recommendation for a 2 day decant piqued my interest. According to the Blandy's website this was bottled in 1998. I found an old thread in this forum that talked about decant times for Madeira: http://www.fortheloveofport.com/ftlopfo ... ant#p37962

I found the rule of thumb for one week for every 10 years in the bottle to be interesting. If something was bottled 30 years ago, would that mean 3 weeks is required for it to show its best? I am curious as to the arguments for various rules of thumb for decanting Madeira...

[Roy Hersh]

No. It has far more to do when the Madeira was put in bottle. A 1912 that was put in bottle in 1946 is going to require four to five days of decanting to show at its best. If that 1912 was bottled in 2009, then 24 hours will be perfect and 48 will round out the edges a drop more. I have rarely had ANY Madeira that could not use 24 hours in decanter, except for maybe a couple of dozen truly ancient warriors that were good for only an hour or two. But those bottlings are so rare nowadays, that you are pretty safe with the 24-48 hour regime, for all but the really old "bottlings" not bottles.