Community Tasting Notes 3

• mdefreitas wrote: 95 points

  October 17, 2009 - A Taste of History: The Leacock Family Madeiras (revisited) (The J.P. Morgan Mansion, NYC): Another wine with heavy, dark, “brown” flavors. Dense fruitcake and nut skin flavors. This “oldest Bastardo known to exist” did not disappoint. Although it showed great at the San Francisco tasting, I feel it performed slightly better here, showing a bit more amplitude and width. A pleasing “gritty” bitterness (like tea?) on the finish kept the wine fresh and clean. Lovely fruitcake and nut skin flavors reverberated on the finish. The best Madeira from this varietal I've tasted to date (not that I've had that many...). Fantastic!

  Comment

• mdefreitas wrote: 94 points

  June 6, 2009 - A Taste of History: The Leacock Family Madeiras (Hotel Monaco, San Francisco, CA): This is the oldest Bastardo currently known to exist. Intriguing fruitcake and mocha nose. The flavors are "darker" than the other wines tasted thus far. More fruitcake, treacle and roasted flavors on the palate... almost like a liquid bolo de mel. Pleasing nut skin and coffee bean bitterness on the finish. This leans more towards the "bass" rather than "treble" spectrum of flavors that Madeiras can take on. More of an intellectual rather than hedonistic experience, but extremely enjoyable and unique. [I find it interesting that of the few Bastardos I've had, they've all tasted radically different... the 1875 Cossart Gordon displayed exotic tropical fruits (mangos/papaya/kiwi); the 1927 D'Oliveira was sharp and mouth watering with citrus and a bitter/chalky/mineraly almost Chinon-like flavor and acidity; the 1927 Leacock had a dusty dried strawberry and boullion/saline character. Tough to surmise a common thread among these little "Bastards". Mannie mentioned the classic bitter finish... perhaps the defining attribute?]

  Comment

• rjonwine@gmail.com wrote: 95 points

  June 6, 2009 - Leacock Family Madeira Tasting - Rare Wine Company (Monaco Hotel, San Francisco, California): Medium red orange color with ruby lights and yellow meniscus; red grapefruit, blood orange and orange honey nose; rich, tasty, blood orange, orange honey, creamy orange, syrup, lime mandarin orange and praline palate, all in what I can only describe as a "lower register"; long finish with a bitter note [Mannie Berk says that a bitter note on finish is typical of real Bastardo. This is the oldest vintage of Bastardo known to exist.]

  Comment

Pro Reviews 1

Wine Definition

• Vintage 1836
• Type Red - Fortified
• Producer Lomelino
• Varietal Bastardo
• Designation n/a
• Vineyard n/a
• Country Portugal
• Region Madeira
• SubRegion n/a
• Appellation Madeira

Community Holdings

• Pending Delivery 0 (0%)
• In Cellars 4 (25%)
• Consumed 12 (75%)

Food Pairing

Who Likes This Wine

More About This Wine