D'Oliveira Madeiras…nothing under a hundred years old...

Last week we had the agents for D'Oliveras Madeira bring some wonderful samples into the office. I am a big fan of Madeira, I love the flavour profile, the acidity the complexity. A two day trip to the Island with Blandy's for a tour and some Golf further peaked my interest. I didn't know the D'Oliveras wines well (can only find one reference on the blog from a Ridge dinner) before this tasting, I had always heard the style was a little drier than the other houses and the acidity a tad more persistent.

D’Oliveiras is one of the greatest of the classic Madeira shippers, and one of the few to survive from the pre-phylloxera era. Founded in 1850, and an amalgamation of firms dating back to 1820, it is today housed in cellars that date from 1619. This small jewel of a company has always be owned by the D’Oliviera family, who were once highly important growers in the parish of São Martinho.

So the wines. They were tasted in flights by variety. I scored out of 20, more for my own info than anything. I find tasting notes for Madeira amongst the most difficult to write, apologies for any oddities:

1875 Sercial - Bovril and acidity strikes, superb, lovely rasping acidity then a little "sweet" marmite, so long, dry, luscious complexity. 17 (+)

1862 Sercial - More mellow, broader than the above, more oranges appear a little more complete. 17.5

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1912 Verdelho - Wood and brightness, some nuts, lovely energy, good zip. 17.5

1905 Verdelho - Serious, quite raisined, lively, good, mellow on the palate but with energy. 18

1890 Verdelho - Special, lovely, somehow both precise, lively dry and sweet. Archetypal Madeira for me, splendid. 19 (+)

1850 Verdelho - Bovril, heavy, viscous, oranges and citrus appear, wonderfully rich, a little different too, unique. 18 (+)

1903 Boal - Richness, has a lovely peppery acidity, drier than many, such amazing life. 18-18.5

1908 Boal - Good balance, not too much of anything, a little less complexity on the nose but well balanced and good. 18

1875 Malvasia - Such focus, a masterclass in acid complexity, elements of this remind me of old Nebbiolo. Wonderfully bizarre. 18

1901 Malvasia - Superb nose, such life, especially classy. This is like an exceptional Boal to me, special. 18.5-19

1907 Malvasia - Such richness, viscosity, delightful wine, amazingly lush. 18 (+)

1895 Malvasia - Almost saline, superb, really fine, rich and fruity, may be the pick? 19 (+)

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1875 Moscatel - Less zip, good but in this company just not my sort of thing. 16

The thing that really struck me from this tasting - and a few minutes per wine is NOT enough here - is that the Malvasia's in particular were amongst the best I have tried. Ordinarily I am a Verdelho and Boal man but the slightly drier interpretations of D'Oliveiras seems to work well to my palate.

One final point, the tasting room was still smelling glorious 48hours later, these little wines are "pocket battleships" of aroma, quite amazing… 

Madeira - Blandy's tour and tasting - quite something

To follow on from the previous day, and post, that was all golfing and fun we woke early to get checked out and head on over to the Blandy's wine lodge for a look at the wine making and tour of the Canteiro lofts all follow by a brilliant tasting. I am not going to turn this into a blog about how Madeira is made because that is best left to the experts and there are many good sites on line that cover this including Blandys very own. I'll split this into two halves, the tasting and then a gallery of pictures with a few captions.

Before launching into what was an incredible 29 wine tasting I must just say, in my defence, that the vocab you use for this is difficult, it is so easy for any aroma or flavour that someone mentions to just suddenly appear. These wines are amongst the more complex anywhere and writing about them is, for me at least, difficult so prepare for repetition and unscientific notes. I drink a fair bit of madeira anyway and love the wines which arguably makes them even more difficult to analyse, anyway enough excuses.

This was one of the most enjoyable and informative tastings for some time. Everything was tasted from ISO's and at room temperature. Cask samples are complete wines but incredibly young and obviously will have much time ahead of them for the fortification to meld into the wine etc. The Vindima wines are pre-fortification and from 2014 (coming into the winery as we tasted). For the actual tasting I reverted to an old scoring system of up to three ticks of varying lengths, for this I will try to translate that to "out of 20" with 10 being good to 15 very good and beyond. There are no scores for the Vindima and casks. Right, enough waffle:

Unfinished "wines":
Sercial cask sample - very high acid, piercing even, clean and green with little length.

Verdehlo vindima wine - grapefruit and lemon/lime, very intense, acid high.

Verdehlo cask sample - peary but also oxidised. Very interesting it not yet at a stage where it can be called enjoyable.

Bual vindima wine - grapefruit but with some brown sugar on it, pineapple almost, a touch of pear tannin, good.

Bual cask sample - has a nose of half spirit, half wine, delicious in a savoury complex way, peaty with a saline edge can see why they use this for the whiskies that have a "Madeira cask" finish.

Malmsey vindima wine - pear tannins again but wit a little honey apple acidity, a certain dryness on the finish.

Malmsey cask sample - really needed to meld together, almost the most incomplete now that the spirit is there, a grape of such richness obviously needs time.

Tinta Negra before Estufagem - dates and dry wood aromas almost a little nuttiness, drier palate than I expected.

Tinta Negra after Estufagem - coming together, delicious for the dates and figs then a little odd on the finish.

The Wines:
Alvada - very good, has enough savoury richness to go with the sweetness, fruit is bruised dates and figs has good volume - 14.5.

Sercial 10yr old - lovely nose of nuts but clean and crisp, not heavy, a little white fruit. lovely long dry, tangy finish, impressive - 15.

Verdehlo 10yr old - such a lively and moreish nose, has a lovely bit of dry grip on the palate that is counterbalanced by just enough sweetness. really very good - 16.5.

Bual 10yr old - very classical Madeira, by which I mean archetypal in terms of what ones thinks of Madeira as. A nutty core but with bruised fruits - 15.5

Malmsey 10yr old - not overly sweet on the palate which is good, I might have gone for bual if tasted blind, more dates and figs than any nuts - 15.5. 

Bual 15yr old - concentrated but calm and complete nose, nuts and certainly hazelnuts in the main come to the fore. Very complete - 16.

Malmsey 15yr old - hedonistic, an almost "high" note the the nose, some peatiness as well lush dried fruit intensity, an elegant finish, very good wine - 16.5

Terrantez 20 yr old - tangy, oranges and saline, lovely enticing nose. The palate has a dry energy but this is also a "fruity" wine. Nuts but dark fruit everywhere. It's different somehow but I love it. Herbal even - 17.5  

Sercial 1998 - clean, fine and concentrated, delicious, bright, fresh with a few nuts but more an unctuous "flor" character, could sip this for hours, so different from the previous wine but not better or worse -17.5

Verdehlo 1998 - very bright and lively with an almost citrus fruit, nearly just drank this there and then, high but lovely acidity that keep this so persistent, very focussed and very very long, finish had a nutty tangy my side note just says "great work!" - 18.25. (this may also have been the time when i realised that if, god forbid, I was only allowed one grape from Maderia it would be Verdelho)

Bual 2002 - decadent richness without being overly sweet, a little peat in the middle, potent acidity is good, rich with poise, palate was more open than the nose - 17.25

Malmsey 1996 - some pine resin and a lovely Speyside note here along with sweet fruit on the nose. Texture is rich but not sweet, keeps it's focus well - 17.25

Malmsey 1988 - very fine nose, very complex, hard to describe actually. Yeasty unctuousness with a honeyed element, really very good. I loved the lively and persistent finish that made be think of Verdelho - really pretty special - great all-round Madeira - 18.25

Terrantez 1976 - One of the favourites amongst the team. No lack of interest or complexity, that's for sure. Eucalyptus, medicinal nose, quite herbal, palate similar but lifted, a really tangy acidity, a little smokiness and a slightly degraded animal finish - undoubtedly good, unique…17(+) 

Sercial 1975 - complex, old nose, dry and moreish if a little muted, all about the palate here. The tongue loves this wine, there is a grape tannin and pithy lemon about it my summary is: nose is ok, plate is delicious - 17.5 (first Madeira I've had from my birth year)

Verdehlo 1973 - wow, just beautiful nose, very very complex, hard to describe, tangy on the palate and so lively, then crisp and long a dash of light nuttiness but more a set of dry honey, so good - 18.75-19

Bual 1969 - almost a dash of toffee, very fine, has a nose that suggests even more air would be good (I love the fact that they say with Vintage Madeiras that a day per decade is the best guide for decanting), not too savoury on the nose, Richness on the palate but such a lightness of touch also, very precise the finish is splendid, very high but very good acidity - 18+

Verdehlo 1968 - great nose, almost worthwhile just or the aromas, the finish is then perfect, energy and acidity are brilliant, an incredible vibrancy to this wine, very young and very very tangy, brilliant - 18.75-19

Bual 1920 (bottled 2006) - rich mahogany, has such amazing depth and energy, Nose is decadent, some dates, figs and dark sugary fruits, some savoury edge but mostly real dark energy. there is a brooding and serious side too where Bovril and almost stock appears but then live again, delicious for wallowing in - 18+

Verdehlo 1887 - this was served totally blind and there were a few guesses. I was pleased with my "stab" of Verdehlo 1905. There was a tangy edge that made you unsure if this was sweet or not. Saline is there and such moreishness, very real focus to this, amazing given the age but not amazing for Madeira! Herbal citrus may be the tag line here - 18.5

After this amazing tasting we went to the north of the island to look at vineyards, and with over 400 producers supply the Blandy's team there are a lot of them. The views and countryside is incredible. A great lunch of chicken rice and cabbage with a refreshing Croal beer rounded things of perfectly…it was a real shame to leave the island. Many thanks to Mr Girling, but especially to Chris Blandy and his great team!

Trucks of grapes arrive for inspection and pressing in Funchal

Older vintages, all stood up - the acidity would go through the corks otherwise.

If I remember correctly this is Malvasia.

Nice big barrel of Verdelho.

One of the Canterio lofts, just like the deck of a ship.

Labelled barrels all going through ageing.

Wines resting in demi-johns - sadly under lock and key.

On the north side of the Island - not the worst spot!

The head man - Chris Blandy - inspecting a newly planted vineyard.

Maderia - lots of hard "Work"…and the odd "ninja"...

Team strip

Last weekend was an amazing trip to Madeira with the shippers for Blandy's and some wine trade colleagues. As so often happens on visits, sports tours and other escapades everyone got on well, the laughing and joking grew through the weekend and I think I can safely say a great time was had by all.

Cracking BBQ

Nice long ash

Two of us had to join the party late and that meant a three hour stop off in Porto Santo on the way, now I'd never even heard of this island and thanks to the fact we weren't allowed to leave the plane I have little to report other than there is a golf course there (look left as you come in to land, it looks pretty good). So having finally landed in a very wet Madeira- apparently the 1st time in 20 years it has rained like this in the early part of the harvest - we dropped bags (Hotel Enotel Quinta do Sol) and met up with the rest of the gang for a BBQ at the Blandy's Wine Lodge. Some great meat and a few beers later all was well with the world.
A Hoyo de Monterrey Epicure 2 - courtesy of our organised and fully committed tour leader - smoked very well. The next morning it was time for one of the two main reasons we were on the Island - The Madeira Open Golf @ Palheiro Golf Club. The other reason is to see and taste the amazing Madeiras - that appears in the next (more serious) post. The team were is decent enough form for the trip up to the course but seemed positively on fire once we had a fried breakfast and had been handed our two 20cl bottles of Blandy's Alvada (to be consumed during the round). 

Pre-golf - that's a breakfast

The format was stableford four ball better ball in teams of 2. There were also prizes for mens and women's longest drive and nearest the pin (which amazingly I won but didn't deserve to - don't tell anyone that and yes I missed the birdie putt). We had the added detraction of playing snakes (three putts), camels (bunkers) and Monkeys (trees/scrubs), essentially you do not want to be left as the last player to do or visit any of these things as you'll get left with the cumulative payout from the whole round. It made for a last hole in our four that will live long in the memory (to nightmares for those involved . The team, decked out in their Blandy's shirts, did well, we wilted a little in the muggy heat but it was a great way to spend a few hours. The local brew - Coral beer - never tasted so good after the round.

After a dinner and prize giving - both of which got progressively more boisterous - we had a lovely few hours on the balcony over looking Funchal and talking an increasing amount of enjoyable nonsense.

Funchal - not the worst view of post golf drinks!

Amazingly sense seemed to kick in and later we had a mellow dinner (more good stories) back in Funchal over looking the sea before a relatively early night…nobody wanted to be on anything but great form for the tasting the following day. A few pictures below will give you a better ideas than my words above. Blog part two of the trip is in progress.

Chris Blandy leads the way

Captain Girling and his shorts!

Not sure my slight miss-hit deserved this!