Community Tasting Note

Echinosum Likes this wine:

Sunday, January 15, 2023 - So one of my reasons for buying this bottle was to test if Barbeito can make a better 10-yr-old than Henriques can make a 15-yr-old, given that they are about the same price - though the H15 usually comes in 50cl bottles, so the price equivalence is per cl. In general Barbeito does have a higher reputation than Henriques, but is it worth that much?

But what I have to hand to taste it against is Henriques 20-yr-old, which is quite a lot more expensive. And I did think it quite a lot better than their 15-yr-old. Average CT scores only differ by 1, but when you put them side by side, that's nowhere near enough.

In comparing the B10 to the H20, we see that the B is a richer, sweeter wine, but the H has a much greater intensity of flavour, and higher acidity. However we also detect a bit of an ugh factor with the H. The B has a more pleasant and enjoyable flavour, even if it is simpler and less intense. I also felt that the B succeeded in having a distinctive verdelho character, which I did not feel that was always achieved with other madeiras of similar age. As others have noted, the B10 is a relatively sweet and dark wine for a 10-yr verdelho. Though I have also had Justino 10-yr verdelho, which is similarly sweet. Justino is a cheaper label owned by Henriques, and in another big step in terms of quality and price. So I don't find it out of the range of verdelhos I have had in terms of its sweetness.

Although I haven't got the H 15 to hand to compare directly, given that I have compared the H 15 to the H20 and found the H20 much better, I think I have to conclude that I would markedly prefer the B 10 to it. So B seem to be able to do a much better job than H in making a wine of a given age indication. But additional age is likely to deliver intensity and complexity of flavour, but that more intense and complex flavour is not always quite as pleasant and enjoyable as it might be.

I might invest a little more money in Barbeito, when some of their more interesting bottles become available.

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