January 9, 2020 - Opened in memory of my father, born this day 100 years ago. This is my second and last bottle, the first opened with my father in 2008. While it is a lovely wine, it will never be as great as my old man was!
What is there really to say about these old Madeiras? Certainly, it had some VA, notes of iodine and balsamico, and bracing acidity with a long, long finish. I look forward to sharing tastes with my other siblings as we gather during the coming year.
January 22, 2013 - Madeira @ Bistro Cacao (A Malvasia Affair) (Washington D.C.): This showed so much better than my last taste back in 1999. Assertive and fragrant with a caramel, toffee and lime zest nose. Weighty on the palate, but still fresh and uplifting. Some volatile acidity, but not off-putting. Fantastic cling on the palate with a lengthy, zippy, juicy, orange peel finish. Wonderful acids on this outstanding bottle.
January 31, 2012 - Medium sweet with what I hoped would be a touch more acidity. Big nose of iodine and varnish. Oozes complexity.
September 26, 2011 - Dark brown color. Complex forward aromas of raisins, chocolate and spice. Rich flavors of chocolate, fig and tart citus. Viscous mouth feel with good acid backbone. Lip-smacking lingering finish that lasted for minutes. Everyone really enjoyed this one.
May 27, 2011 - Medium brown, green on edge. Open now for 3 months, getting coconut on the nose, and coconut, tobacco and chocolate flavors. Other flavors I can't identify which just make this more complex and pleasing. Wonderful Madeira.
After 6 months opened: very elegant Madeira. Acids are very fine and smooth. Salt, blond tobacco, apricots, fig and light honey flavors. Still getting the coconut nose, but milder and mixed with more of the tobacco. Tasted this side by side with the 1922 D'Oliveiras Boal, which was a huge contrast (see notes elsewhere). This wine is the elegant, jeweled lady next to the chunky Boal.
May 23, 2011 - Different bottle. This nose has a strange petrol coffee funk that I haven't smelled in other madeiras. Very strong and was not my fave. Serious greyhound acidity in the finish. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this wine needs more air time and actually tastes young and green. Toasted almonds, chestnut honey cake, sweet orange marmalade.
May 2, 2011 - This is a bad boy bual. Nose was like dark Turkish coffee, with this earthy green twig thing going on. Coffee, rich with toasty candied dark walnut toffee cake, soaked in some brandy and more coffee fudge. Incredible intensity in flavor, with gorgeous lighter toffee, valencia orange marmalade, a little lemon curd, candied almonds, coffee, that was very rich but not overbearing, thanks to the bracing acidity. The flavors stayed with me – great length and finish a mile down the road, up the hill, around the bed, all the way home. Impressive.
You’d think the 1920 would have unwound more, but this wine is very closed unless you decant for a few days. Not just open the bottle and cover with cheesecloth, but decant. Flavor profile very different than one of my all time favorites, the 1920 D’Oliveira Bual, see tasting note, but this was super special and a stunner. This wine was perfectly dressed, coiffed and accessorized with enough quirkiness to raise it’s cache in making it both seductive and approachable - not an easy feat.
Michael Alberty at Storyteller Wines in PDX poured this as the super pour this last Friday. Kudos to him for opening this special bottle and educating people about Madeira.
March 18, 2011 - 12/27/10 lovely
February 28, 2011 - Nutty nose with lots of acid. Brutally acidic on the palate with lots of nuts and orange peel. Huge structure and barely sweet. Like a drill. Monolithic. Jesus. Really true. Nose - 5/6, Palate - 5/6, Finish - 5/6, Je Ne Sais Quoi - 2/2 = 17/20.
February 28, 2011 - Barbeito Madeiras: The 65th Anniversary Celebration (The Modern, NYC): Sourced from the Favilla Viera family from vineyards in Sao Martinho. Perceptible sweetness yet relatively dry for a Malvasia. Chestnuts, walnuts, caramel and fruitcake. I last tasted this wine in 1999, as an earlier bottling. One would think that the extra years in cask for this newer bottling would sweeten this wine through evaporation. But if my memory serves, this seems more dry, nervy and edgy than the previous bottling; perhaps my memory is off? Regardless, this wine remains a wonderfully balanced, lengthy and extremely satisfying Madeira. Fantastic.