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2012
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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2012 and 2024 (based on 8 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 89.8 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 33 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by Harley1199 on 11/15/2023: By the glass. Varietal sercial 10 years collection from Barbeito. By comparison much less sweet than their sister bottles on the nose. Let’s say that the sweetness is discreet. In the mouth it has also an unobtrusive structure that helps to round its end. Nutty aftertaste. Not bad at all.
Por copas. Varietal sercial de la colección 10 anhos de Barbeito. Por comparación mucho menos dulce que sus botellas hermanas en nariz. Digamos que el dulzor es discreto. En boca presenta una discreta estructura que ayuda a redondear su final. Retrogusto a frutos secos. No está mal del todo. (562 views) | | | Tasted by ploher on 5/7/2023: Oranges, kumquats, hay and nuts; high acidity on the palate as is typical for this (my favorite Madeira) producer providing freshness and balance, but quite sweet for Sercial. Not a lot of complexity, but long finish. Lovely wine especially for the price. 16.5/20 (394 views) | | | Tasted by oenanthe on 4/3/2023 & rated 86 points: Medium amber. High acidity, a little bit searing actually. Quite potent on the nose, definite oxidative nature. Candied, heavy legs, served at 14 but in my view would be better more chilled to temper. At Barbeito in Madeira. (528 views) | | | Tasted by forceberry on 9/3/2022 & rated 87 points: Made with Sercial grapes sourced from Jardim da Serra and Ribeira da Janela. The grapes are fermented for approximately 5-6 days. Then the must is rectified to approx. 20% ABV with 96% ABV grape spirit to halt the fermentation, after which the fortified wine is transferred to old French oak casks. The wine is aged in Canteiros, ie. in warm warehouses, in which the wines age in casks that are never topped up. The wine is blended from different casks resulting in a wine that is stylistically approximately 10 years old. Bottled filtered. Labeled dry. 19,22% alcohol, 45 g/l residual sugar, 7,45 g/l acidity, pH 3,52 and 0,78 g/l VA.
Luminous golden-yellow color. Classic, savory Sercial nose of hay and slivered almonds, some smoky tones, a little bit of apple jam, light sharp notes of rancio, a hint of syrupy sweetness and a raisiny touch of Sultana. The wine feels slightly warm and somewhat mellow for a Sercial on the palate with a medium-to-moderately full body and medium-sweet flavors of hay, some crunchy Granny Smith apple, a little bit of caramel, light oxidative notes of mushroomy funk, a little bit of tangy salinity and a hint of ripe citrus fruits. The rather high acidity keeps the wine nicely in balance and offsets some of that sweetness. The finish is quite long and quite mellow with moderately sweet flavors of green apples, some lemon marmalade, a little bit of raisiny Sultana character, light crunchy notes of quince, a hint of hay and a touch of caramel.
A nice, pleasant and tasty Sercial. Perhaps a bit sweet and mellow effort for a Sercial, but nothing overtly so. Curiously the wine seemed a bit more oxidative than many other Sercials of similar age, yet still felt maybe slightly lacking in depth and complexity. A pleasant, accessible and reliable 10 yo Sercial - no thrills, no frills. Priced somewhat according to its quality at 25€. (1208 views) | | | Tasted by PSPatrick on 10/13/2021 & rated 90 points: Tasting Training for WSET Level 4, Units D4 + D5 - Session 6 (Madeira, non-blind): Wine 3: The wine's colour is medium gold. The wine has medium intensity of aromas on the nose. Aromas include dried apricot, almond, walnut, caramel, toffee and coffee.
On the palate the wine is medium-dry, with high acidity, high alcohol, and a medium body. The intensity of flavours is medium(+), flavours mirror the nose and include dried apricot, almond, walnut, caramel, toffee and coffee. The alcohol is well-integrated, the texture is oily, the wine has medium(+) length.
This is a very good quality wine since it has very good complexity, very good concentration, very good balance of sweetness and acidity, and very good length. To be considered being of outstanding quality the wine would need even greater complexity and even greater length.
The wine has been matured in oxidative and warm conditions. Thanks to this maturation and to his high acidity and high alcohol it will keep on this level for many years, but it will not improve, and is hence to be considered not suitable for further ageing in bottle. (1123 views) | | | Tasted by Larsrar on 4/28/2021 & rated 90 points: Wonderful.
Barbeito - who is one of my two favorite Madeira producers - has a fairly dry style with a little salty edge, which makes it easier to pair with food.
For the money it does not get better.... (892 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 2/24/2021: Figs, nuts, flor. sherry and caramel are a few descriptors that come to mind. (977 views) | | | Tasted by NateR on 1/5/2020 & rated 89 points: Oranges and a little leather on the nose. Might have guessed this to be sherry rather than madeira, as it has less rancio and acid on the palate than a typical sercial. But the flavor is quite good, with a little sweetness up front with a drier finish. (520 views) | | | Tasted by Lyubomir Lefterov on 1/6/2019 & rated 95 points: This is a fascinating wine, it is considered relatively dry against the other Madeira varietal 10y.
On the nose barley and nutty character, a touch floral, very interesting. In the mouth is clean and focused, chiseled acidity, complex and layered effort. This is excellent on its own, could go for aperitif, but I prefer it a the end of the meal, when it perfectly cleansed my palate.
I really enjoyed it, and slightly prefered it to the 10Y Verdelho, that's more on the sweeter side of scale. (1319 views) | | | Tasted by Finare Vinare on 12/6/2018 & rated 92 points: Almost four years in the open bottle. Yes, the colour is apparently browner now, but the harmony, complexity, and fullness of flavour is probably even better, with preserved citrus freshness and excellent length. Incredible wine! (1529 views) | | | Tasted by PacoHigon on 6/22/2018: De color ámbar . La nariz es intensa y seductora, con toques de azúcar quemado, frutos secos tostados y un fondo matices cítricos. En boca tiene buen ataque, cierta untuosidad, buenos amargos, bien de acidez, dulzor comedido y muy bien equilibrado con el alcohol. Largo y con notable profundidad. (1230 views) | | | Tasted by Balthasar on 3/12/2018 & rated 90 points: Expressive nose with roasted nuts, honey and dried fruits. Has good concentration, freshness due to vivid acidity and a salty lingering finish. (907 views) | | | Tasted by The years of the grape on 10/23/2017 & rated 92 points: Caramel, toffee and hazelnuts, but also some fresh lemon, dried fruits, stone fruits (apricot, ripe peach).
Still off-dry, but well balanced from the racy acidity.
Good weight, good length, good intensity. (1171 views) | | | Tasted by rikipedia on 9/18/2017 & rated 90 points: Terroir-istes International - Portugal, Madeira (Groot Constantia): (Tasted Blind): Mid brown/tawny wine; The nose is complex with prominent notes of walnuts, wood smoke, dried citrus peel and damp rocks.
Intense on entry with a lovely refreshing, if firm, acidity. Plenty of walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds with a delightful austerity that is lip-smacking. While it doesn't have lots of depth, it is elegant and relatively complex. It closes with cheese rind, dried apricot and caramel but lacks the polish found in Henrique & Henriques, for example. It is aged in French oak for 10-14 years and has an alcohol content of 19%. (480 views) | | | Tasted by tendring on 3/6/2017 & rated 91 points: Wine Education Service - Madeira (LSE): Ruddy gold.
Nutty, oxidised nose, some sweetness, complex.
Fruity toffee, very attractive, complex, great acidity, off dry, great length. (911 views) | | | Tasted by FransS on 11/22/2016: I didn't like the smell (like cheese); the taste however is better.
I haven't rated the wine because I'm not familiair with this (kind of) wine. (910 views) | | | Tasted by isaacjamesbaker on 2/2/2016 & rated 87 points: Madeira Pilgrimage; 2/1/2016-2/4/2016 (Madeira): Salty and clean on the nose with lemons and oranges. Vibrant acidity and kick on the palate, but also some attractive creaminess. Orange peels, dried apricots, salty air. This paired incredibly well with grilled octopus. (2722 views) | | | Tasted by PT insurgent on 4/15/2015: Super delicious. Grabs your attention, penetrating acidity, superb fruit, spice, coffee, toffee notes. Really superb wine for the price. (1260 views) | | | Tasted by acyso on 9/1/2014 & rated 93 points: This surprisingly doesn't taste dry at all. A little bit of orange has developed on the nose and palate, but there's tons of yellow citrus influence here. Not green or grassy, this is pretty damn tasty. Serve it slightly chilled with food. (1664 views) | | | Tasted by HStaal on 3/8/2014 & rated 92 points: WSET Level 3 Course - Berry Brothers & Rudd; 1/25/2014-3/22/2014 (Berry Brothers & Rudd - Basingstoke): Appearance: clear, medium amber with a slight olive green rim; definite legs
Nose: clean, medium(+) intensity, caramel, candied fruit, savoury, walnut, pecans; fully developed.
Palate: medium-dry, medium(+) acidity, full body, pronounced intensity, long finish, high alcohol for a fortified wine (19.0%), dried fruits, nuts, walnuts, sultanas, raisins, salted caramel
Overall: Very good balance, long finish, intense, complex.
Conclusion: VERY GOOD; drink now – not suitable for ageing; PREMIUM priced (£32.95) (2889 views) | | | Tasted by Man in Black on 1/17/2014: Clear and bright, medium amber colour and presence of dense legs. The nose is clean and fully developed, showing pronounced intensity aromas of caramel, coffee, toffee, walnuts, peanuts, dried figs and hints of prunes. The wine is off-dry in the mouth with a high lively acidity, high warm alcohol, medium body and medium+ intensity flavours of prunes, caramel, walnuts and coffee. Long finish.
It is a very good quality wine with a good balance between acidity and alcohol, a lingering finish and a decent complexity provided by ageing aromas, but not complex enough to consider it outstanding. Drink now, not suitable for ageing. The wine is already fully developed and will not improve, but it can be kept for many years. (1352 views) | | | Tasted by PC73 on 11/12/2012: Meant to be dry in style, but quite sweet to my palate. (1590 views) | | | Tasted by spatialiser on 7/21/2012 & rated 91 points: Wonderful aperitif style, not heavy some friuit and body, very little sweetness... (1885 views) | | | Tasted by SAND on 5/14/2010: (Flaskelagret 7 år etter kjøp)
Farge: Brunoransje ravfarge (men noe mer brun og mindre oransje enn da den ble kjøpt).
Duft: Rik, intens duft av tørkede sitrusfrukter, karamellisert appelsinskall, sukat, bergamot-té. Klare oksiderte / madeiriserte toner.
Smak: Kraftig, krydret, ganske kompleks smak. Tørr, men avrundet av fylden og alkoholen, syrene trer frem litt lengre ut i smakskurven. Ren og veldig flott balansert, ungdommelig og frisk, nesten fruktig madeira, tross oksideringen.
En svært bra 10 års Sercial, som har vunnet på ytterligere flaskelagring. (2559 views) | | | Tasted by rob1869 on 1/20/2009 & rated 91 points: Served slightly below room temp. Light amber, clear; pungent nuttiness and orange peel on the nose; nicely (richly) tart on the palate; long. A great "house" madeira. (2144 views) | | | Only displaying the 25 most recent notes - click to see all notes for this wine... |
| By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (10/16/2017)
(NV Barbeito, Sercial 10 Year Old deira White) Subscribe to see review text. | By Julia Harding, MW
JancisRobinson.com (5/24/2017)
(NV Barbeito, Sercial 10 Year Old deira White) Subscribe to see review text. | By Julia Harding, MW
JancisRobinson.com (10/28/2014)
(NV Barbeito, Sercial 10 Year Old Reserva Velha deira White) Subscribe to see review text. | By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (5/2/2012)
(NV Barbeito, 10 Year Old Sercial NV Madeira White) Subscribe to see review text. | By Jancis Robinson, MW
JancisRobinson.com (4/27/2010)
(NV Barbeito, 10 Years Old Reserve Sercial NV Madeira White) Subscribe to see review text. | By Richard Hemming, MW
JancisRobinson.com (11/6/2008)
(NV Barbeito, Sercial 10 Years Old Reserve deira White) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of JancisRobinson.com. (manage subscription channels) |
| 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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