For The Love Of Port

Blandy´s 1920 Bual
No bottling date. 19.5% alc.[/b]
Decanted 48 hours

Appearance- Medium amber with wide green/gold rim.

Nose- Medium intensity aromatics- caramel, nuts, light clove and a touch of baked banana.

Taste- Medium body, high acid, medium sweet. Flavors repeat from nose plus acetone and burnt caramel. Good length but with an unwelcome bitterness on the finish.

The wine has some complexity and length but is marred by the bitter note on the finish, unintegrated alcohol showing hot, and a lack of intensity of flavors for a vintage madeira. Flavors tend toward dried fruits, nuts, and spices with a lack of freshness. Aggresive acid for a Bual.

2 out of 5 stars.

Thank you for the fine tasting note. I had this wine last month at Blandy's and it is always a great treat. I seem to like this Madeira considerably more than you. It is one of the best middle-aged Blandy's and a very good Bual overall. It is also the oldest bottling that Blandy's will see at their lodge in Funchal.

Had this a couple of months ago on the Island. Bottled in 2006. I enjoyed this quite a bit. I thought it very complex and concentrated, but I love a lot of acidity. The Madiera Wine Co. still have about 700 liters left in cask, and Chris Blandy said they were planning on bottling the lot in 2020. I enjoyed it enough to buy an entire Magnum!

Good note. Well written. Good and surprising. Did you come across an 'off' bottle? That would be highly unusual but not impossible.
Blandy's Bual 1920 is one of the better example of last century's Madeira.
The wine maker, Francisco Albuquerque was-is proud of it. Rightly so i think. My notes (4) are pretty consistent: Intensity and complexity. Interesting combination of green tea elegance and sinewy richness. The final note goes on forever.
Ah well, the mystery will remain.
Glad to note that you use the 'star system'. I understand the 'star system'. The 100 points approach used on this forum is well beyond my comprehension:
some day someone will explain to me the difference between a, say, 90 points wine and a 91 points wine.

Thank you for the diplomatic response, Philippe.

Perhaps this could lead to a discussion about bottle variation of madeira. Fortification and extended oxidative ageing create very stable wines but I do not think it makes vintage madeira impervious to the factors that could influence a wine while in the bottle. What is your experience?

And, while we are a it, how much do you think the vintage madeira market has been affected by falsification? I am not implying that the bottle of 1920 that I tried was fake but the topic is in the news and madeira might be one of the easier targets given minimal labelling.

Peter,
False Madeira is an interesting topic. There is quite a scandal in the US right now about false wines regarding a certain Rudi Kurniawan. He was arrested a little while ago by the FBI on fraud charges. Since he sold large volumes to big collectors and restaurants, and also they have been resold; many of the fakes may have circulated widely. The wines that are suspect are rare Burgundy and Bordeaux, a few Italian. So far, I've not heard of any fortified wines being involved; however I'm more than a little concerned since I've bought at auction. I've a couple of bottles with missing capsules and redone labels. Don't know what to make of them short of tasting them. One good thing in regards to Madeira is their monetary value has been low relative to Bordeaux and Burgundy, so the advantage to fake them is less.
There is the secondary issue of refreshing casks. There is a thread about refreshment of wood aged Ports on the Port forum. For a large, long standing company like Blandys and the Madeira Wine Company, I'm assuming they have good records as to the keeping of their casks; but one cannot be entirely sure of wines almost a century old! I'm inclined to believe Blandys when they say the wine is entirely 1920 Bual. The times I've had their 1920 Bual, I know they've bottled them. I also have a photo of their cask of the remainder of the 1920 Boal. It's in their lodge in Funchal.

Can't remember Peter when and if i ever came across a bottle of Madeira that was off. Remarkably tough,resilient, consistent wine.
As far as bottle variation is concerned i have one experience which could be of interest: a lot of 5 mid 19th century Bual which was
acquired in the States in the mid-seventies and travelled with the rest of my cellar to Europe, back to the States and finally ended in
Canada under rough travelling conditions over a span of 35 years. The last bottle was consumed in 2002 and was as superb as the first
one opened in 1977.

Now on to my favorite subject: 'Is an ancient vintage Madeira really a 'Vintage'. I have great difficulty believing that the old ones, mid eighteen century through end of the nineteenth are actually 'vintage' wines as the word 'vintage' is understood and aplied to the rest of the vintage wines on our planet.
A, say, 1792 'vintage' Madeira has travelled a very long and arduous rode to reach our glass. Stock of the wine has often moved from one shipper to another.
How was a pip of '92 refreshed over two hundred and some year? With the same wine from another barrel? Maybe, unlikely.
Ivbam will state that ALL vintages are just that: 'Vintages'. They bring no proof to the table, no documentation. If you challenge their statement
they get very mad. To quote a line from 'The King speech', George V says about Edward: 'The boy looked straight into the eyes of his father and lied'.....
That is how i feel about IVBAM's position. Just an opinion.... would not want to be accused of slander.....
So, what do we have in that bottle of 1792 Boal? Well we have an old wine, because it has the complexity and depth of an old wine. It may be pure Boal, or not, we don't know. It is probably a blend, ancient and often outstanding. But a 'Vintage'. As an old Scotsman i knew once said 'I hae me doots'.....

philippe

Bottle Variation Theory?: The most remarkable thing about the 1920 Bual which started this string was the large amount of sediment it had. I had never seen so much sediment in a madeira. Is that consistent with your notes for this wine, Phillipe? If not, do you think it could suggests a correlation between large quantities of sediment and off bottles of vintage madeira?

Falsifying: I think some of the prices that very old madeiras are achieving at auction could motivate people. Hasn´t it ever struck anybody as just a little strange the number of 1795 bottles that come up for auction? I believe the reduced labels might make older madeira a target.

Excellent questions Peter.
Sediment? I've come across traces, nothing comparable to vintage ports both younger and older. More often a crust, as in crusted port, on the side of the bottle. Which had obviously had rested on said 'side' for some time. I think your deductions do make a lot of sense

Enjoyed reading your observations.

Thank you Peter

philippe

I've encountered some relatively heavy sediment in Madeira in long bottled wines. Nothing like Port, but enough to coat the entireity of the bottle surface. Usually the sediment is very, very fine and seems to coat the glass surface. I'll frequently redecant back into the original bottle and will wash the coating off first. Some times, it takes quite a bit of effort with repeated filling then agitating with hot water.
I do think there is variation with Madeira, especially since some wines may be bottled at different times. Some bottlings are actually more famous than others.