May 29, 2021 - Tasted at Bern's
Dark color -- like many d'Oliveiras
Very fresh nose with noticeable VA; lovely!
Hazelnut, marzipan, coffee, and toffee notes. Balanced with a ton of acidity. Not noticeably sweet, with acidity balancing the sugar and being the primary driver. Really quite lovely and very dense and powerful. Not as good as the 1912, but really quite lovely and complex.
March 1, 2020 - Sweet, intense butterscotch nose wth vanilla and coconut husk. Extremely well-balanced classic example of verdelho with an acidic and moderately dry mid-palate that flows into a tight but quite deep finish. Very well-rounded wine. I tend to prefer sweeter verdelhos. So add a point to the score if you like them on the dryer side. A-/B+
September 26, 2019 - Deep yet vibrant. So many complexities of brine, pecans, honey, candied lemon peel. So, so delicious and complex.
December 31, 2016 - Rich and deep espresso, dark chocolate, soil, walnut and pecan, orange and apricot, with nicely balanced acidity for a verdelho. Very nice
November 12, 2015 - Similar profile to prior bottles albeit with a darker character and more melded backpalate flavors. Bottle consumed over the course of 1.5 weeks. 94-95
October 11, 2015 - Nose of bitter orange, fig pudding, dried ginger, brown sugar, bitters, and sweet balsamic. Palate with bitter orange, dried orange rind, and pecan, with pecan and hazelnut notes lingering with bitter citrus on the finish.
October 3, 2015 - Iberian Wine Dinner (Milford, CT): Very much a d'Oliveira wine... big, muscular and concentrated. Loaded with honey, citrus, burnt sugar and dried yellow fruits. The finish is intense, pungent, lip-pursing and full of bite. On the drier side, but not lacking in richness. The finish on this wine just knocked me out. A bit of VA, but not off-putting... just a whiff to add complexity. More of a wine to have by itself rather than with food, as this really has a lot going on.
October 3, 2015 - Iberian dinner (Milford, CT): Comes across quite sweet after the Sercial, with rich honeyed, toffee, and molasses flavours framing an array of dried fruits, roasted nuts, and citrus peel. Full bodied on the palate with a very glossy, slightly oily texture, and plenty of sweetness that's very well balanced by the bright acidity here.
February 10, 2015 - Nose of dried orange peel, dates, ginger, bitters, walnuts and very old balsamic. Palate with bitter orange, dried orange rind, warm rocks, suede and a very long finish with pecan at the very end. Pleasing balance of acidity and sweetness. Crisp and piercing on the tongue, this wine is a fitting end to a meal without oversaturating the palate. In a blind tasting I would not be able to pinpoint this as a 50 year old madeira, and I suspect it has a very long life in front of it.
August 20, 2013 - Besøk hos Pereira d'Oliveira (Funchal, Madeira): Duft: Flott nese, forbausende fruktig.
Igjen en utrolig fruktighet, flott syre, lang ettersmak og perfekt balanse.
Marginalt bedre enn Sercial 1969.