Professional Ratings

• 96 Wine & Spirits
  Terrantez was near extinction when the Blandy family planted a small plot at Quinta de Santa Luzia in Funchal in 2004. Along with a few other recent plantings, there are now five acres of the variety on the island. This wine would have come off the Torrebella estate, which Richard Mayson described as a sanctuary for the terrantez grape in his article on the variety (W&S 2/16), a vineyard that was broken up after the 1974 revolution and much of it sold for real estate. As Mayson wrote, “Francisco Albuquerque, winemaker for the Madeira Wine Company, which includes Blandy and Cossart Gordon, recalls that the last commercial crop of terrantez was harvested as recently as 1988, shortly before the land was commandeered for a new shopping center.” The variety has an uncanny ability to produce wines that are both voluptuous and brisk, this one rich with caramel, maple syrup, lemon meringue and beach rose scents, salty with a sandy abrasion to the light tannins and completely fresh as it closes in on 40 years of age, with notes of lime adding tension. This bottle might be an investment, but if you recork it and store it in the fridge, it will last for months after you open it…though, of course, once you open it, it will continue to extend conversation late into the night and there’s no guarantee there will be anything left in the bottle.
• 96 Wine Spectator
  This is rich, with racy cut driving the clove, dark tea, bitter orange, date, walnut and hazelnut aromas and flavors. Ends on a note of buckwheat honey, staying dry.