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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 94.2 pts. and median of 94 pts. in 18 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Peech on 10/12/2021 & rated 96 points: lots of nuts, medjool dates, plum, and honeydew melon. Needed time to open up. (1046 views) | | | Tasted by humagne on 7/2/2018 & rated 98 points: Almost perfect. Sweet but well balanced by stunning acidity. The nose is extremely complex and rich. (2360 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 10/17/2016: Weekly tasting group RWP: Really Special Wines (@ DJ): This is really special of course! For the age, but also in the impressive bouquet and taste. Oxidized and nutty bouquet with raisins, mandarin, apple syrup, nuts, intense sweetness, and also good acidity. I don't score this. Thank you DJ for sharing! (2562 views) | | | Tasted by mdefreitas on 10/12/2015 & rated 93 points: The Rare Wine Company and Vinhos Barbeito Madeira Tasting (celebrating a 20 year partnership): I wine I know well, as it was one of the first serious Madeiras I purchased back when I first started collecting wines. I haven't had this for some time and forgot what a black hole of sugar this was. Dark like cola and stuffed with caramel, toffee, fruitcake, fudge and coffee. This was tremendously sweet with a hint of volatile acidity; the structure is just barely harnessing the sweetness here. This really sticks out in the Barbeito portfolio with its unusually aggressive sweetness. Certainly a polarizing wine, as some would surely find it too much of a good thing - but if you have a sweet tooth, this is for you. While I did enjoy it and can see this as a wine I would serve with dessert rather than by itself, I'm not sure I can drink more than a glass of this concentrated elixir. I can only imagine what could have been if it spent less time in cask. (4197 views) | | | Tasted by CO_Roots13 on 12/14/2014 & rated 100 points: I can't find words that do this justice. I don't have much experience with incredible dessert wines that have been aged for 100 years in original cask. Right or wrong, this is the standard that all other dessert wines will be judged for me until I have something better (which I doubt will ever happen). Perfect balance of sweetness, acidity, texture and...well, everything I can think of. Caramel, orange zest, apple pie, rosemary brown butter, vanilla, coffee...um...none of this makes sense. Words can't describe the depth and complexity of flavors.
10-20-10-10 (1987 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 1/1/2014 & rated 92 points: Chocolate brown color. Very intense bouquet with a lot of chocolate, coffee and also some acetone which after a while in the glass blew off. On the palate also coffee and chocolate, a nice amount of sweetness, a lot of bitterness and acidity like in Aceto Balsamico. I did not drink this one blind and knowing it is 112 years old makes it very special, especially because it still a beauty to drink. I scored it 92, but that does not include the knowledge that the wine is more than a century old; it is just for this evening's tasting experience. (4532 views) | | | Tasted by Christer Byklum on 3/4/2012 & rated 95 points: 1900 Barbeito Malvazia;
Dark amber, towards brown with golden rim. Intense and rich nose, leaping out of the glass, nuts, fruit cake, dried fruits, almost massive. High acidity, fresh and lively, layered but lacks the extraordinary nuances and complexity of a perfect D'Oliveiras bottle. 95 (7090 views) | | | Tasted by PeterH on 6/10/2010 & rated 97 points: Giant wine. When the somm popped the cork and decanted, you could smell it from 3 tables away. Wow.. (6443 views) | | | Tasted by rjonwine@gmail.com on 6/12/2008 & rated 94 points: Surprise Birthday Party for David Niederauer (The Plumed Horse Restaurant, Saratoga, California): Dark brown color with yellow lights; gingerbread and fruitcake nose; good tart molasses and coffee palate with high acidity; long finish (4929 views) | | | Tasted by mdefreitas on 1/20/2007 & rated 93 points: Madeira @ Triomphe (NYC): Very dark in color, the darkest in the entire tasting. Very masculine and forceful, knocking down everything in its path. Chock full of raisins, molasses, orange zest and walnuts. On the sweeter side of the Malvasia spectrum and perhaps a bit of a brute for those looking for more elegance. Overall, I preferred the 1834 Barbeito Malvasia, as it struck a nice middle ground between the elegance of the 1862 Blandy’s Malvasia and the power of this wine. VERY GOOD. (7248 views) | | | Tasted by Eric on 1/7/2007: Roy Hersh's Majestic Madeira Extravaganza (Seattle, WA): Cloudy brown color. The nose is a little stale and stalky, somewhat raisined. The palate is rich, searing, with caramel, acid and then a further tidal wave of acid. (7642 views) | | | Tasted by rjonwine@gmail.com on 1/7/2007 & rated 94 points: Roy Hersh’s Great Seattle Vintage Madeira Tasting (Kaspars Catering, Seattle, WA): Cloudy, medium muddy brown color; nose of brown sugar with tomato notes; rich, sweet, brown sugar palate with lime acid and notes of tomato paste, barbecue sauce and sundried tomatoes; very long finish (4945 views) | | | Tasted by Xavier Auerbach on 12/12/2003 & rated 96 points: Bottled October 1995. Magnificent, rich, concentrated, a beauty. (2645 views) | | | Tasted by mdefreitas on 5/10/2003 & rated 95 points: Decanted for three days, which removed quite a bit of muddy sediment. The removal of the sediment and the aeration seemed to have helped, as the wine was much more expressive than the last time I sampled it. Very big aromas of caramel and orange peel, with molasses and a razor sharp acidic tang. Gloriously long and rich. (4812 views) | | | Tasted by Xavier Auerbach on 7/3/2001 & rated 93 points: Tour and Madeira Tasting at Vinhos Barbeito (Funchal): Elegant, seems lighter than the others, Américo Pereira says this is because it was stored rather cool from 1996-1998. (2238 views) | | | Tasted by mdefreitas on 3/2/2000 & rated 87 points: (Dinner w/ Joao Roseira of Quinta do Infantado, NYC) Typical tawny colors with a hint of green on the edge. Nice, but a bit disjointed on the palate. Sweet and perhaps a bit flabby? Caramel and coffee but dull on the palate. I would guess that this needs a lot of air to perhaps show better. (4976 views) | | | Tasted by dbg on 1/1/2000: excellent (2748 views) |
| Barbeito Producer websitePortugal ViniPortugal (Associação Interprofissional para a Promoção dos Vinhos Portugueses/Portuguese Wine Trade Association)MadeiraThe Madeira Wine Guide and For The Love of Port are two essential sites on the wines of Madeira.MadeiraFrom Mannie Burk@ Rare Wine Co :
When served in 1950, the wine was 158 years old, but in fine condition, still boasting Madeira’s trademark rich, sweet, velvety taste and roomfilling aromas of butterscotch, cocoa and coffee. Sir Winston insisted on serving the guests himself, asking each in turn, “Do you realize that when this wine was vintaged Marie Antoinette was alive?”
Madeira’s longevity earns it a special place in the realm of old wine. What other wine requires over a half century to mature? And what other wine, when a century old, still benefits from several hours of breathing and can stand up to weeks in a decanter, without losing its complexity or its richness? And how many wines can live for two centuries and still offer not only the pleasure of their antiquity, but also the enjoyment of drinking?
The robustness and longevity of Madeira, even once opened, allows for endless experimentation with food pairings and drinking occasions.
Madeira’s Mountain Vineyards:
Madeira is produced on a breathtakingly beautiful volcanic island of the same name which surges from the sea at a point 360 miles west of Morocco and 700 miles south of Portugal, which governs it. The history of Madeira’s wine is nearly as old as that of the island. The island was first settled by Europeans—led by the Portuguese explorer Zarco—in 1419. By 1455 a visitor from Venice wrote that Madeira’s vineyards were the world's most beautiful. Within a century, the wine from these vineyards was well established in markets throughout Europe and by the 1600’s it had become the most popular wine in Britain’s North American colonies.
America’s First Wine:
The popularity of Madeira in the American colonies got a huge boost in 1665 when the British authorities banned the importation of products made or grown in Europe, unless shipped on British vessels from British ports. Products from Madeira were specifically exempted. British merchants in Madeira took full advantage of this by establishing close ties with merchants in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston and Savannah. A steady trade developed in which wine from Madeira was traded for such American products as indigo, corn and cotton. This trade continued unabated until the early 1800’s, except when politics and war interfered in the 1770’s.
For two centuries, Madeira was the wine of choice for most affluent Americans. Francis Scott Keyes is said to have penned the Star Spangled Banner, sipping from a glass of Madeira. George Washington's inauguration was toasted with Madeira, as was the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Wealthy families from Boston to Savannah established extensive collections of Madeiras. Madeira became high fashion, and“Madeira parties” (a forerunner of today’s wine tasting) became major social events.
How Madeira is Made:
Madeira is produced from grapes grown on terraces cut into the island's steep mountainsides. Like Port, Madeira is a “fortified” wine to which brandy has been added. But unlike other fortified wines, Madeira is also heated for several months, either in special vats or in the attic lofts of the Madeira lodges.
This heating (called “estufagem”) had its origins in the days when merchant ships called at Madeira on their way to the East and West Indies. Beginning in the late 1600's, wines from Madeira's vineyards were frequent cargo on ships sailing to the Americas, as well as to mainland Portugal, England and India. According to legend, the value of a trip to the tropics was learned when an orphan cask, forgotten in a ship's hold, returned to Madeira from a trip across the Equator. The wine was found to be rich and velvety, far better than when it left, and a tropical cruise became part of the Madeira winemaking tradition.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, producers continued to send casks of their wines on long voyages, for no other reason than to develop greater character. The ocean traveling wines were called vina da roda (“wines of the round voyage”) and those that crossed the Equator twice were considered the best. Some Madeiras were named for the vessels with which they sailed (Constitution, Balthazar, Red jacket, Hurricane, Comet) or the places they had been (East Indies, West Indies, Japan, Argentina). Although this practice ended in the first decade of the 20th century, heating is still a critical step in the making of all Madeiras.
A Century of Change:
While the majority of Madeiras are blends of vintages and grape varieties, it is the vintage wines, and the now-vanishing soleras that are Madeira’s claim to greatness. Vintage and solera Madeiras are not simply a selection of the best wines from the best years, they are made from particular “noble” grape varieties after which the wines are named. These names—Malmsey, Bual, Verdelho, Sercial—not only describe a grape variety; they also describe a style, with Malmsey being the sweetest and richest (and therefore the most like Vintage Port) and Sercial being the lightest and the driest.
There are other grape varieties whose names you may stumble across on old bottles of Madeira. Terrantez and Bastardo, in particular, are grapes that were widely grown up to the late 1800's and whose old wines can still be found on occasion. The virtual extinction of Terrantez and Bastardo grapevines in the late 1800's coincided with the decline of the Madeira wine trade and resulted from the same causes: two diseases of the vine, Oidium and Phylloxera, both of which also struck the vineyards of Europe, but in Madeira caused much greater, and more lasting, destruction.
The Oidium crisis began in 1852 and lasted about a decade; during this time some 90 percent of the island's vines were destroyed by powdery mildew, and the number of firms producing wine decreased by over 75 percent. There was a brief period of replanting and rebuilding in the 1860's, but then Phylloxera struck in 1872, reducing the island's vine acreage to about 1,000 by the early 1880’s.
The Phylloxera crisis, too, passed, and by the turn of the century production had been restored throughout the island, albeit at somewhat lower levels. But the costs had been heavy. Madeira had largely lost its traditional markets—America, England and the British East Indian colonies. Relatively less of the classic grape varieties were now grown, as they gave way to more prolific, but less distinguished, varieties. And, of course, stocks of older wines had been largely depleted, after a half century during which little young wine was being produced.
Today, the world's supply of fine Madeira is negligible. However, those few examples that have survived from the 19th and early 20th centuries are among the world's most majestic wines, which no wine lover should fail to experience.
Over the past twenty years, our passion for these noble wines has grown with each passing month. We believe that they are among the greatest, most individual wines this planet has ever produced. They possess a richness and grandeur shared by only a few wines.
And their ability to age makes them absolutely unique. Most wines are dead and gone at age 100; and at best they are barely drinkable. But after a century, a Madeira can be just reaching its prime, possessing the depth of great age, but also the vigor of youth.
The gradual depletion of the world’s stocks of these irreplaceable wines has only encouraged us to try harder to find the wines that remain.
A Note on Prices and Quality:
As they have grown in rarity, and the sources of supply diminish, the price of Madeira on the world market has skyrocketed. Though many of the older wines arguably are worth whatever you may be asked to pay, the rising tide—combined with Madeira’s mystique—has also raised the prices of mediocrities to the levels of the greats. |
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