April 3, 2016 - Classic nose of toasted walnuts and burnt orange rind. Intense sweet ripe flavors with a dominating hard citric acid edge. Long wild passion fruit finish that really lasts over a minute. Great stuff and so much life it's crazy.
April 3, 2016 - Olde Wine Dinner 1925-1966 (Chez Kailin Cellars): First real Maderia experience. Dark and clean color, needed time to develope biut I can see the potential. Very good.
October 28, 2015 - FICOFI HK event - highlight of an amazing evening, for me. Great balance of aromas of stewed fruits, berries, black cherry, with some delightful freshness and excellent length. Haunting.
October 17, 2015 - Ficofi 30th in Hong Kong. This Madeira was an epic drinking experience, possibly wine of the night for me. Fresh and seriously intense. Burnt sugar. Kept developing, so complex. Really mind-blowing when you then look at the age on the label. 1827 what?
September 9, 2014 - Mature "Iconic Burgundy" dinner and tasting in Christie's board room, London. Limited note taking.
A splendid way to finish the dinner. Caramel, charred oak, dry fig, desert fruits, spiced cooking apples, etc etc..... Intrinsically sweet but with the searing pectic acidity that all fine old Boals seem to possess throwing it into perfect balance.
Immensely long (30+ minutes). Superb - 97+ and pretty well immortal!
ps looked at my note on the Lomelino 1820 Solera Boal drunk on my birthday in April - virtually word for word identical!
January 11, 2011 - Madeira @ Equinox (Washington DC): A spectacular showing for this legendary wine. Cognac, roasted nuts, floral perfume, cloves and nutmeg. An almost painful intensity that assaults the palate and lingers... and lingers. Brown spice flavors haunt the finish. Pungent and intense. The balance is impeccable. Very close to being the wine of the night. Originally purchased by Steve for $265 in 1999 (current price $1276).
December 26, 2010 - Purchased a 1oz pour at the Sampler in Islington from their vinomatic machines.
This has a clear dark golden brown core with a bit of sediment and a small white edge.
Clean nose of burnt sugar, marzipan and toasted almond slices. This actually comes across fairly grapey as well with a touch of alc.
The palate is beautifully complex. Medium sweet with a real expressive grape must-fruity body. Rich notes of caramel, toasted nuts, coffee, worn chest, Christmas spices and burnt fig are in perfect harmony with the super bright sharp acidity. Pure pear, apple and fig leaf flavors dance on the finish for minutes. I can still taste the wine a good 5 minutes after.
Absolutely fantastic. The complexity of this is seamless. 97-98 pts
Easy to see why this was Neal Martin's Wine of the year.
Lots of life in this, could last another 100 years! What a treat.
April 3, 2008 - Roy Hersh Vintage Madeira tasting and dinner (Plumpjack Cafe, San Francisco, California): Medium dark brown and brick brown color with clear meniscus; clean roasted coffee, butterscotch and hard caramel candy nose; tangy, deep, mocha, caramel palate with great acidity, restrained power and elegance; mocha truffle dust toward super long finish (in cask until 1935, bottled some time earlier than 1989, when more of this wine was bottled for Christie's auction)
April 3, 2008 - Madeira @ Plumpjack's (San Francisco): It is always a pleasure to taste this wine. While there is some bottle variation with this wine and this was not one of the "best" showings. it was still pretty darn fantastic and one of the wines of the night. This was in cask for 108 years before it was put in demi-johns in 1935. This sample came from a bottle with the "block-like" lettering and was bottled some time before the bottles with the "script-like" lettering, which were bottles in 1989 (and are supposedly better). My notes read "Ridiculous complexity. Ethereal, Weight without weight". Hard to believe this was not a "better" bottling of this wine!
March 10, 2007 - Madeira @ The Caucus Room (Washington DC): The wine of the tasting! Outstanding complexity with a cornicopia of flavors -- orange peel, tea, toffee, nuts, spice and even a hint of a cool menthol streak. Overwhelming depth and length. PROFOUND!