1834 Barbeito Madeira Malvazia- Portugal, Madeira (12/5/2010)
This is an amazing wine, bottled in 2005. The color is dark brown, concealing the destinctive green rim of Madeira. The nose of toffee literally filled the room with a sweet smell of candy. The wine does not come across sweet at all, yet the palate is loaded with caramel and toffee notes. The wine would pair well with a number of savory dishes, but the best would be high fat cheeses. This bottle was served with both a double cream and a triple cream and the fat balanced the high acid of the wine perfectly. (94 pts.)
It is definitely a Vintage Madeira. There are still casks of it on the island although it is getting more scarce as time goes on.
Coincidentally, that 1834 is the singular Madeira bottling that I’ve had the most number of times. John’s rating is within a point or two of where I normally score this wine but he definitely provides sound observations at to what’s in the bottle which is far more important than any score.
You know, John raised an interesting point here that I’ve never considered before, although I’m familiar with the way Madeira is bottled, and that is the actual bottling date/year. I’ve got a bottle of this in the cellar as well, but I’ve had it long enough that it certainly wasn’t bottled in 2005. Assuming the wine was still being held in cask as opposed to a glass demijohn, I am guessing that in some small degree, John’s sample would be more evolved, developed & concentrated than mine, no?
I’ve never thought to look before - is the bottling date disclosed on the label?
Roy, I thought the last of the 1834 was bottled a few years ago. The newer bottlings have paper labels, the older bottlings are stenciled. Other than that, and the date you acquired a bottle, I’m not sure there’s a good way to tell when it was bottled.
Love the wine, have had it way more than a dozen times (the last just about a month ago), but mine are all gone and the replacement cost is 3 times what I used to but it for. No longer worth it to me, but highly recommended if you’ve never had it, truly the heroin of Madeira (the first taste is free…).
Your premise is sound and your guess a good one. There’s no question that the longer in cask the better the Madeira … 99% of the time.
On the other matter, unfortunately the bottling date is not required to appear on the label and never was. More recent bottlings occasionally do mention it, but typically not on Frasqueira (Vintage Madeira), and only rarely does it appear on Colheitas.
Chuck, you may be right and heck, I could have even been the one to write that, after a visit to the island one of the past few years since this was written, but I am just not sure right now:
1834 Barbeito Malvasia Vintage Madeira
Fortunately there is still a decent supply of this left on the island which was good to see when visiting in mid-May. I had the '34 two weeks before the NY tasting, (although it was a flawed bottle) at the event in Seattle and have consumed more of it than any other Madeira, including a great bottle at my brother’s wedding. Normally I am jaded by having consumed some at nearly every Madeira event I’ve attended, but this was probably the most vibrant '34 Barbeito bottling that I’ve tasted in a very long time. I have a feeling that the “agitation” and decanting it received added lots of oxygen which had a positive effect on its showing, even though it was a recent bottling. It exhibited a dark chocolate color and more so than usual, with an amber-greenish hue. The intense bouquet permeated my head and supplied a scintillating mélange of salty beef bouillon, peaches, caramel and figs. Voluptuous and viscous in the mouth, with zippy acidity and in perfect harmony. Multi-layered flavors swept over my palate, delighting with dates, dried peaches and pralines, with an elegantly smooth texture and hints of liquid butterscotch on the sexy aftertaste. This was a memorable Malvasia and the highest I’ve scored this Madeira in ages.
Roy, we had this at Paul N’s place seven years ago. Stunning wine and it’s still the oldest bottle of wine I’ve had. My note from that dinner:
1834 Barbeito- Madeira Malvasia Reserva Velha
Think about this for a moment. Andrew Jackson was in office when this wine was made. History nut that I am, I always get a kick out of thinking about what this wine, and other old wines, would’ve seen if they had eyes. The sweetest, most harmonious and complex of the four Madeiras, it shows comforting old world aromas of VA, molasses, spice and marzipan. On the palate there’s grilled apricots, hazelnuts, marzipan, spice and burnt sugar flavors. Complex, layered and held together nicely by a strong, but not overpowering acidic spine. More please! A+/A.
I assume that was the same afternoon you nailed the Lividia '45 blind, Brad … and we tried the other handful of Madeira bottlings? Or was it when we had the 1912 Niepoort Colheita at his home?
That was the dinner. We also had the 1922 D’Oliveiras- Madeira Reserva Boal, 1903 D’Oliveiras- Madeira Reserva Boal and 1885 Barbeito- Nadeira Verdelho Reserva Velha.
The three bottles of this wine that I bought a few years back all have the bottling date on the back label. I still have the bottle and can pull that label and post it. However, I had a bottle of this 6-7 years ago that had a bottling date of 1995 on the back label. My notes of that wine are a bit different, with there being some sweetness evident. This bottling had no sweetness at all.
Chuck, I hear what you’re saying on replacement cost. The bottles I have now cost me $495 each. The 1995 bottling that I bought back in 2001 cost $295. While the price is high, it’s still pretty cheap compared to what a similar age bottle of Bordeaux or Port would cost.
Back to the lack of sweetness, I’m glad that it’s not in this wine. It makes the wine so much more approachable with a variety of dishes, and for me that’s the most important thing. While I love sampling wine at tastings, to me it’s all about the wine and food pairings.
As I mentioned in my previous post, these bottles have the bottling date on the back label. See the scan below. As I recall, the first bottle of this that I purchased in 2001 had a similar label with a 1995 bottling date. Also, the 1900 Barbeito Malvasia I had about 10 years ago also had a bottling date on the back label. These all had paper front labels. Perhaps the bottling date recording is unique to Barbeito, due to their market-making in Madeira these days?
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