This bottle seemed to show more fruit and roundness than the more steely examples I had before. The nose had some nice floral tones as well, and the palate's rounded out red fruits were just lovely. Still, this is obviously just a baby, and a few years to let everything integrate should do this wine very well.

Disgorged July 21, 2015. Very intense white fruits on the nose, with a touch of marzipan. The acidity here is a big electric jolt, and there's a lovely almond note on the finish as well. The palate shows tart green apples, but there's a lot more concentration and stuffing on the palate today. I'm confident this will have great potential, but open a bottle today to experience the explosive power here.

Disgorged April 30, 2015. This shows a lot of sappy yellow fruit, as well as a relatively ripe character. The palate is quite consistent with that, and the acidity, while high, has a roundness that balances on the palate a bit better. There's a slight touch of toastiness on the finish, and the chalky minerality comes through quite clearly here.

Disgorged November 2013. The nose on this shows a hint of funk in some mushroom notes, but there are some aromas of tangy red fruits and a slight floral note as well. The palate shows tart cranberry aromas, as well as a slightly odd creamy note. Somewhat simple palate, and a little for want of mineral zing here, but this is still pretty tasty stuff.

60% C, 40% PN. This seemed to show a pronounced sweetness on the nose which I found on the palate as well. This is a very fruit-driven rose, until the end, when you notice that the acidity was sneaking underneath everything all along. The palate is quiet opulent and rich with a fair bit of chalkiness as well. Quite good, but the fat fruit on the palate seems just a bit off-kilter in the context of the other elements.

Bottle 596 of 2057. Cuvee 117 on tirage March 2006, disgorged April 2013. Just way too much biscuit here for me. Waaaaaay too much. There's a very prominent sweet apple note on the nose as well. The palate has a lovely raciness to it, with the same prominent biscuit and apple note. I really wanted to like this more (and it has all the components I'd want in a great sparkling wine), but I couldn't get past the pronounced biscuit.

Bottle 919/1000. Bottled March 2013. Initial impression: extremely bright, with more citrus than brown spice on the nose. The palate is powerfully acidic, with a prominent grapefruit peel note.

Bottle 123/1150. Bottled August 2013. Initial impression: the nose on this is nuttier and less fruit-driven than the sercial. The palate comes off the same way, with more nuttiness and darkness than the sercial. Despite that, there's still a lovely citrus freshness to this wine. A tad sweeter than the sercial too, though the acid certainly isn't lighter here.

Bottle 479/920. Bottled June 2013. Initial impression: Surprisingly, this isn't particularly sweeter than the verdelho. Instead, this takes on a darker tone in comparison to the other Barbeitos in this lineup. Here, the citrus takes on more of a pomelo character, and the acidity seems to have been toned down just a slight bit. There's a touch of coffee on the palate as well that gives this its darker tone.

Bottled 2014. Initial impression: there's a slight fresh greenness to this bottle that's actually quite alluring. This is very, very light for an Oliveiras, and it doesn't suffer at all for that. Lots of acidity and power here -- especially next to the Barbeito wines, the difference in house styles is quite stark. There's less fresh citrus, and more of a candied tone to this wine, but I find what is lacking in elegance isn't quite made up for in power.

Bottled 2014. Initial impression: there's a profound honeyed aspect to the nose on this wine -- I get a lot of sweet florals. The palate is quite spicy, and showing tart oranges, caramel, and a bit of Christmas spice. The acidity here is very powerful, and it feels almost as if this is a smidgen too dry. But then you realize that there's all this complex material, and everything's good again.

Bottled 2014. Initial impression: this had a slightly grassy and green nose. Extremely light on the palate and not too concentrated, I found this a very easy-going and friendly bottle of sercial. Very bright, but I feel as if I'd enjoy this more if it had a touch more depth.

Lot 1. Bottle 517/1416. Bottled February 2015. Initial impression: stunning madeira. This is so refined and smooth, with elegance and poise. The nose is quite reticent, but shows a very lovely brown sugar note. The palate's acidity is in perfect harmony with all the other elements. There's sweet candied citrus peel, as well as tart citrus notes. And it's all bound together with some ancient tinta negra that provides a lovely roundness to it all.

This had quite a stench when we popped the bottle, but fortunately, air blew that off right away. The nose is quite high-toned, with a little bit of something evoking Sharpie marker, though there are some light candied citrus notes as well. The palate is very rich and sweet and shows much more burnt sugar flavour than anything else, though there are some pleasant brown spice and citrus notes on the back end. Quite thick in texture, this would appeal to one with a preference towards richer wines.

Bottled 2008. I used to think, "oh, I'll skip sercial and verdelho because they're drier styles, and I like wines with more RS." Then I grew a brain. This is an inky dark madeira, with a very deep nose of brown spice, burnt sugar, and toffee. The meagre fruit on the nose is dried and very sweet. The palate has a somewhat medicinal tinge to it, and the sweetness seems to transcend the traditional sercial-verdelho-bual-malvasia scale: this is much sweeter than I imagined it'd be. Very dark, rich, and complex, and perhaps just a little bit out of place today on this warm December day, the remainder of the bottle will be jealously guarded for when the weather turns colder.