Madeira Club: a Selection of Malmsey Wines

This year’s meeting of the Madeira Club in Bristol focused on Malvasia / Malmsey, from the present day back to 1830. Malvasia is not my favourite category of Madeira and I hesitate from calling it a ‘varietal’ because of a number of different grapes that fall under the Malvasia / Malmsey umbrella. Suffice to say that Malmsey is the sweetest and almost certainly the most popular styles of Madeira wine over the long-term, nowadays mostly produced from a grape called Malvasia de São Jorge. Historically there is also Malvasia Cândida (of which very little remains), Malvasia Babosa, Malvasia Cândida Roxa and (just to confuse things) Malvasia Fina which on Madeira is better known as Boal. Of course, pre-EU there is no knowing what the wines are made from because Malmsey – Malvasia – Malvazia was considered to be a style designation reserved for sweet wine made from any grape, including the now prohibited hybrids and direct producers which still flourish on parts of the island.

This was a fascinating tasting; an upward ladder of Malmsey from a good, modern-day 5-Year-Old and a recent Colheita to a number of distinguished wines; three with over a century of age. It showed the generational changes in Madeira over a century-and-a-half with, dare I say, the ‘bad old days’ reflected in Harvey’s Superior Old Rich Malmsey (see my notes below). The wines were scored out of 20 by the 16 tasters and ranked accordingly, however the scores listed below are my own. The wines are listed in the order they were tasted.

Barbeito 5 Year Old Malvasia ***

Pale orange-amber in hue with a simple, spicy and still rather spirity nose; clean with a gentle tawny marmalade character and a slightly dusty character, a semblance of textural age and richness mid-palate (104g/l residual sugar) and a medium-long, gentle finish. Many people marked this down due to its youth and simplicity in context but I think this is a good, balanced example of a young Malvasia. 15

Harvey’s Very Superior Old Rich Malmsey ****

This wine, apparently bottled in 1953 (but I think it was later), was in the wrong place in the tasting and should have come after the 1986 Colheita below. It represents a generation of Madeira wine that has long gone: mid-deep mahogany with a green rim; pronounced rancio nose, it reeks of sour cheese and burnt caramel with some syrup of fig too; rich and rather rather soupy in style on the palate but quite satisfying in a funny way, smooth with dried fig and raisin, considerable, almost unctuous richness on the finish. I don’t know who made this wine for Harvey’s but it has all the hallmarks of a wine from the Madeira Wine Company at this time. This was the lowest scoring wine in the tasting but I was in a rather forgiving mood and awarded it 16.5.

Blandy’s Colheita 1996 Malmsey (bottled 2011) ****

Nut brown in hue with a lovely lifted crystalised fruit character and a touch of smoky autumn leaf complexity on the nose, also something slightly earthy that I can only identify as a characteristic of Malvasia de São Jorge from which this wine is made. Gentle sultana richness on the palate with some texture and depth (135g/l residual sugar) and lovely fresh citrus peel on the finish. Good balance and poise overall. 17.5

D’Oliveira Malvazia 1991 (bottled 2019) ****

Pale mahogany with a green tinge, I almost always find something slightly rustic in D’Oliveira’s wines and this is no exception with its slightly casky overtones on the nose but fruit cake richness and a savoury character too; lovely rich texture on the palate with dried fig concentration, showing good depth and development for a fairly young frasqueira wine. Well defined, long, linear finish. 17

Barbeito Malvazia 1948 (bottled from glass demijohns in 2017) ****

Mid-deep mahogany with a tinge of olive green; lovely complex, rich butterscotch nose with all-spice and singed leaves for complexity; quince marmalade richness with a nice savoury tang, slightly woody on the palate but with lovely balance overall and a savoury finish. Not that sweet but just lacking a bit of zest on the finish to score more highly. 18

D’Oliveira Reserva Malvazia 1907 (bottled in 2003) ****

Lovely deep mahogany-red colour; rather mute on the nose with a singed demerara character and good underlying richness; full, broad dried fig character combing a tang with good texture mid-palate (121 g/l residual sugar) with a touch of molasses but leading to a rather clunky finish. I am not sure when this wine was decanted but a longer decanting time might have helped. This was the second highest scoring wine in the tasting so others have seen through this. 17.5

Blandy’s ABS 1885 Malmsey ****/*****

I don’t know what the ‘ABS’ stands for; almost certainly a supplier or grower. Mid-deep mahogany with a nose that smells of old socks or my sweaty trainers (bottle stink that might have been mitigated by a longer decanting time, toffeed fruit underlying with crystalised tropical fruit (mango) as well, rather wonderful, rich and singed with glorious almost chocolatey richness mid-palate and an emphatic tang on the finish. Very good, rich and almost too exotic. Apparently only 504 bottles of this wine in total. Marked down by many for that rather unappealing first whiff on the nose, I marked it up for its complexity and funk! 18.5

Quinta do Serrado 1830 Malmsey *****

I have tasted this wine on a number of occasions both before and after a huge lot come up for auction at Christies in the late 1980s. Deep, golden mahogany; an aroma of burnt sugar but lifted, open and perfumed: floral. Quite powerful with tawny marmalade richness and tang, walnuts too, broad, rich and spicy with some rather remarkable tannin and seemingly quite dry on the finish. Very good indeed. This was the top scoring wine for everyone present. 19