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2016
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| Drinking Windows and Values |
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| Community Tasting Notes (average 89.8 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 14 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by The wino and I know on 2/20/2022 & rated 91 points: Was good. Had with carrot cake. Reminds me of a lighter more friendly PX sherry. Tons or raisins and sticky toffee going on. I like it. (398 views) | | | Tasted by Bearbus on 4/21/2017: Masses of prune, along with date, citrus peel, (1037 views) | | | Tasted by Bearbus on 11/11/2016: Dates, moss on rotting wet seawood, saline, toffee, prune, raisin, (979 views) | | | Tasted by isaacjamesbaker on 2/3/2016 & rated 90 points: Madeira Pilgrimage; 2/1/2016-2/4/2016 (Madeira): Nose of orange marmalade, brown sugar, Sweet and rich but stays bright and salty. Complexity is quite nice, and there’s a shot of salty, nutty complexity that keeps the wine elegant despite the richness. (2993 views) | | | Tasted by Man in Black on 2/17/2014: Clear and bright, medium brown colour and prescence of dense legs. The nose is clean and fully developed, showing medium+ intensity aromas of coffee, chocolate, caramel, toffee, molashes, cinnamon and prunes. The wine is sweet but not cloying, with a high refreshing acidity, high alcohol, medium+ body and medium+ intensity flavours of coffe, toffee, caramel, cinnamon and prunes. Long finish.
It is a very good quality wine with a nice balance between sweetness and acidity, a lingering finish and a good complexity provided by canteiro maturation, however the flavour intensity could be more pronounced. Drink now, not suitable for ageing, the wine is already fully developed and will not improve in the bottle. However it can be kept for many years. (2012 views) | | | Tasted by bacchus of knockholt on 12/22/2013 & rated 92 points: Light tawny colour, similar to the 10 year old I tasted alongside it but with a light gold tinge. Nose is orange, coffee. The palate is so smooth, rich orange, sweet coffee, and a lovely walnut finish. A perfect wine for mince pies and Christmas pudding. Excellent and a step up from the 10 year old and only a fiver more. (2021 views) | | | Tasted by Zweder on 7/21/2012 & rated 91 points: Golden brown color. In the bouquet chocolate, coffee, caramel, smoke and eucalyptus. On the palate coffee liquor, chocolate and oranges. A firm amount of sweetness. Some heat of the alcohol in the finish. (2176 views) | | | Tasted by Jona on 2/17/2012 & rated 91 points: Finally a madeira that really charmed me! Lovely nose with a good lack of over sweet fruit. More towards a cacao, caramell aroma. Exciting and open! What a mouth feel. Rich, lasting and delicious. Buy! (2247 views) | | | Tasted by dching on 3/14/2010 & rated 85 points: Not in the same league as H&H Verdelho. Lacks intensity and complexity. Walnut and toffee. (2218 views) | | | Tasted by Greybeard on 9/20/2009 & rated 90 points: A dark, rich auburn hue with a smoky toffee & almond aroma. Complex sweet burnt caramel in the mouth with fresh, juicy acidity. A delicious wine, not as sweet as I was expecting and the better fot it. 90-91pts. (1790 views) | | | Tasted by Xavier Auerbach on 12/1/2006 & rated 91 points: Lovely golden brown; caramel, wood, good acidity, candied fruit, medium sweet, velvety, an elegant and stylish Malmsey, nice tang, smoky, good length. (1521 views) |
| Henriques & Henriques Producer Website.Portugal 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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