Winemaker Notes
Amber color with golden highlights. Characteristic Madeira wine bouquet – Dry fruits (nuts), exotic woods, cakes, and spices. On the palate is sweet, soft and full-body, a long warm aftertaste with notes of honey cake, spices and rum.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
The aromas and flavors of hazelnut, butterscotch, white chocolate and egg cream are lush and seductive. The elegant finish echoes with citrus and spice notes, along with plenty of dried tropical accents. Drink now through 2050.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Bottled in 2015, Blandy's 1999 Colheita Malmsey is showing well, opening in the glass with aromas of mocha, toasted pecans, candied dates and muscovado sugar. On the palate, it's full-bodied, sweet and fleshy, with ripe acids and a long, discreetly oak-inflected finish. This is a nicely integrated Malmsey.
A steep, volcanic island in the Atlantic Ocean that rises to over 6,000 feet at its highest point, Madeira actually sits closer to Morocco than Portugal, the country to which it belongs.
Today the vineyards of the island cover tiny step-like terraces called poios, carved from the basalt bedrock. Aptly named Madeira, this fortified wine comes in two main styles. Blended Madeira is mostly inexpensive wine but there are a few remarkable aged styles. Single varietal Madeira (made from Sercial, Verdelho, Boal or Malmsey), is usually the highest quality and has the potential to improve in the bottle for decades.