For The Love Of Port

Strong work sir!

Madeirathon haul. I don’t have Eric’s ambition to type them in, here’s a picture.

Nice selection of Bolo de Mel.

Nice haul Mike!

I was on the Port Harvest Tour before the Madeirathon tour and so I didn't have much room for Madeira's.
This is what I brought home:

Blandy's 30 year old Bual
1968 D'Oliveira Boal.

The funny thing is that when I was storing the Madeiras I found I owned those Madeiras already! The bottling date is newer of the one's I just purchased , so it's not exactly the same. But it's interesting that my palate preferences were consistent.

Oh.... I also brought that same Bolo de Mel home.

I didn't mention the three boxes of chocolate from UauCacau.

A local shop (Gordon's for you MA folks) did a pre-order for D'Oliveiras this fall.

Just picked up my order:
- 1988 Terrantez
- 1977 Sercial
- 1994 Verdelho

The funny thing is the pre-order email came out in October while I was in Madeira with Roy.
So after our epic all-day tasting at D'Oliveiras, I compared pricing, bought a few bottles at the lodge, and placed an order for a few more bottles back home! :)

Same here, Mike. After returning home from Madeirathon I realized Rare wine co had very competitive prices and placed an pre-order for a bunch of D'Oliveiras

1973 Verdelho
1977 Terrantez
1988 Terrantez

All came with a very recent bottling year.

Picked up a single Leacock 1908 AO-SM Boal.
Also a case of the 1934 VJH Verdelho. A sealed unopened case. The cardboard was decaying. Old IVM selos.

Have you tried VJH's 1934 yet? I'm picking up my case in LA tomorrow. And two more vintages from VJH. Very excited!

Mr Zee wrote:Have you tried VJH's 1934 yet? I'm picking up my case in LA tomorrow. And two more vintages from VJH. Very excited!

I can tell you it was most excellent.

It's an excellent wine. It along with their 1933 Malmsey are the best I've had from them. I think many people don't know about it so the prices were quite low.

I'm wondering if these cases came direct from Justinos. They're sealed and unopened from decades ago.

Thank you, Andy and Eric!

I wondered about the same - who was selling all of this wine. At the auction there were 60 bottle lots, 120 bottles lots... The wine was imported by Wine Marketing Ltd (Slocum R.I., USA), and as you've said Eric, probably decades ago. The OC/boxes looked old and were all unopened (with the original copper staples, glued, etc.). My guess would be that whoever had them probably was in the possession of this wine all this time. So, Justinos or a closely affiliated party?

I wonder if we could guess the bottling age by the fact that Rhode Island reference is using an older style abbreviation (R.I. vs RI). I also found a reference to "Wine Marketing Ltd" in an old bulletin dated 1989. So, perhaps in the 80s?

Cheers,

These have tee type stoppers which Justinos (and Borges) used some decades ago. Based on the style of the selos, I'd guess 1980's as well.

15 year H&H Bual for around $50 locally.

A recent find of 1794 Spinola malmsey.

I know very little about JB Spinola LDA besides that it is a "Brand of the MWC, joined in 1936, probably went out of trade in 1980." Feel free to share more if you know.

I must have missed this originally seeing as it has been here for months, but my interpretation of "from 1794" on that label is that that's when the company was founded. The fonts in use on that label seem far too modern to me for it to be that old, unless of course it was in cask for 180+ years before being bottled. Not impossible, of course.

Interesting thought on the "From" prefix.

On the age, I would imagine if were to be that old, it would have been bottled from some old, old stock... say, a demijohn acquired from some old cellar... a reputable family old madeira stock... Certainly, the bottle is not that old.

"From" is just such a curious word to use to refer to the vintage or bottling date. You'd think they'd simply say "vintage" or "bottled in" instead of "from".

The position of that date on the label also seems odd... why hide the vintage off to the side like that? You'd think it would be front and center.

Thinking of springing for some of the Blandy's 1978 Terrantez - from the absence of any CT notes, this may be the first release of this vintage by them. Has anyone been able to taste this at source or from a recent purchase?

3 x 1964 Justino's Boal