For The Love Of Port

Decanted 6 hours. Still a very dark ruby, but not as dark as most regular Smith Woodhouse VP's. Just starting to show secondary tertiary notes of cedar and menthol, this still possesses dark plums, moderate tannins, and lots of mocha. Not to mention plenty of acidity to keep it well balanced and without any overt sweetness. The menthol which shows itself at the moment is typical at this age and will subside and integrate with age. I really enjoyed the long tannic and lush finish of this Vintage Port. While this may not be a "100 year" Port, it shows very good balance and has the stuffing to age for a good 20 or more years without issue. I am glad I have a small stash of this aging for the long term as it will be fun to pop these a couple decades from now and show people what, probably by then, long lost house was capable of.

In reality Madelena is rarer than Noval's Nacional, as it's only been commercially bottled a small handful of times since the 1980's, and even then in even tinier amounts. This vintage being perhaps the largest bottling of it. Sadly, given the Symington's current lack of desire to continue this brand we may never see any future bottlings of this.

93 Points

I remember this for back in the day (I think on my first FTLOP tour). Really impressive. Sad to see what's happened to S-W and Gould Campbell.

There is a 1996 version of the SWC Madalena SQVP as well.

I've had on a couple of occasions. Good stuff.

A favorite 1995.

I bought a swag of the 1996 Madelena a few years ago when it went on sale here in Edmonton. A real find considering it was almost 20 years old at the time. Good stuff indeed, thoughI would have loved it if there were some of the '95 available but c'est la vie.

Mahmoud.