For The Love Of Port

I'm preparing for tomorrow's tasting of Niepoort's table wines (on which I'll report!). We'll also be having a few desserts; this Barbeito is one of them. I decanted it about three hours ago (I thought that a bit over a day is sufficent?). The colour is brown-green. Immediately out of the bottle the nose was lovely with notes of chocolate, dried figs, tomato/rust, a bit of VA and lovely rancio - great depth and great nuance. Five minutes later however a note of wet cardboard emerged which I associate with TCA, other such compounds commonly called "corked" or bottle stink. As the palate seems fine, I assumed that this is bottle stink rather than cork taint. But bottle stink in my experience has usually dissipated within 20-30 mins at the latest. Do old Madeiras behave differently in this regard? There is still, after three hours, the note of wet cardboard on the nose but not on the palate which has fantastic intensity, rapier acidity, fairly high sweetness which is buried under the divine acidity. Immortal aftertaste.

Otto

This sounds weird.

I've had this wine twice and never detected a "cardboard" aroma or taste. I hope you don't have a flawed wine and this aroma blows off. The last time I had it, I decanted 3 days and it was absolutely wonderful.

Let us know how it turns out.

Gladly it ended up more than fine

1834 Barbeito Madeira Malvazia Vintage - Portugal, Madeira (1/24/2006)
Brown-green-gold. The nose is lovely and expressive with notes of coffee, rancio, tomato, rust, espresso, dried figs...descriptors ad. inf. - great depth and nuance. The palate is fairly sweet with a pleasant degree of oxidation, fine fruit, and utterly beguiling rapier-sharp acidity. Immortal aftertaste. Outstanding.

beguiling rapier-sharp acidity


this is a pet catch phrase of Michael Broadbent's and used for Madeira by him for decades. Are you stealing tasting descriptors now Otto? I have also found that James Suckling used this exact phrase ONCE in a Port TN, also ripping off Broadbent. :twisted:

Roy Hersh wrote:beguiling rapier-sharp acidity


this is a pet catch phrase of Michael Broadbent's and used for Madeira by him for decades. Are you stealing tasting descriptors now Otto? I have also found that James Suckling used this exact phrase ONCE in a Port TN, also ripping off Broadbent. :twisted:

Not stealing, Roy. I am using a a term in our jargon which I assumed was in as wide usage when discussing Madeiras as "cassis" is when discussing Clarets.

Michael sent me an email and said, he'd like you to mail him a check for $.50 as he has that phrase copyrighted. Just kidding of course, as Michael does not touch email.