Yesterday was a very, very special night at local restaurant Peter Pan. They worked with my good friend, Walter Pylypczuk to set up this long-desired night with 16 or so wine lovers. The focus of the night were 3 Madeiras—from 1862, 1840 and…1715. For once, I will include pics.
The Madeiras were sequenced with the intent of sipping them on their own without food, and that’s what I did for the most part. But there were some very neat flavour matches too when tried with the menu, which was:
amuse bouche of charred broccoli with tomato, lemon, parmesan and chive
appetizer of Beef Bourgignon with pasta, mushroom and pearl onion
Main of duck confit with potatoes and fennel
Dessert of tiramisu
2013 Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs
good light tingle here as our starter. Some saline sidebar action, a touch of lactic. Won’t win awards, but perfectly serviceable to wake up our palates.
1715 JCA & C Terrantez Madeira
I want to start each of these with Walter’s own notes that he provided to us
This wine I sourced direct from a very old family cellar in Europe where I spent 5 days reviewing a large selection of old Madeira, other stickies and table wines. I did sample many wines, 100+ year old wines with the owner while on site where I, within reason, randomly selected any wine to sample. I returned with approximately two dozen old Madeira alone. At present, I have had the following and none have been of concern and showed amazingly—1795, 1792, 1720, 1830, 1867 and 1870
I believe Walter told me that there are 4 of these bottles left on the planet—3 now 
Oh my. Really, oh my. Dark amber with red glints. There’s maple syrup. There’s…I want to say Christmascake. Yellow plum too. I spend a long time nosing this. With air, very walnut and hazelnut parts coming through. But the nose is vibrant
It’s truly elegant indeed, particularly at the front of the tongue. It does have a liqueur-like quality in terms of texture as it wanders through the mouth. Baked caramel a bit. Not hot in ANY way. Super-fun that it engages the top of your mouth as well. Wood-fire notes later, another astute taster picks up chamomile. Then yet later it changes again adding some florals. Its evolution, retention of deep interest and vibrant presence over at least 3 hours is really miraculous. For-sure Discovery of the Year.
2018 Albert Morot Beaune Marconnets
Still a little shy to me–ticks of cinnamon and chestnut are there. This is nicely bright and early in its lifespan for me. Twitch of red licorice around definite maraschino cherry. This is balanced and broadens out a little with time in the glass, though it does have a perceptible ceiling.
2014 Chateau La Fluer Pourret
Unfortunately, this St. Emilion was very slightly corked. You can get to perky red fruit underneath, would be nice to sample a sound bottle, seemed like it had some potential.
1862 P. Bolger Malvasia Madeira
Again from Walter:
This wine was purchased from Christie’s. The wine came from the old Bolger family and were bottled from their original old demijohns of about 20 litres. The bottles were recorked by Christie’s with new wax capsules with the Dermot Bolger family seal. Wine level into the neck. While preparing this auction, Christie’s specialists had the opportunity to taste most of these Torre Bella D. Bolger wines
This has lovely aromatic lift as well. There’s a sweet herbs factor in here for me. Sultana raisins, but in a juicy way. This is kind of more structured than the 1715, has a fair degree of kick and tasty raisins and some pit fruit–maybe apricot? But with air time it gets a little shrill----there are great components but it misses the harmony of the other two. Still astonishing life in here, no doubt.
2005 Hidden Bench La Brunante Meritage
One of the attendees is the winemaker here and brought the very first vintage of this high-level Ontario red. It showed wonderfully well tonight. Concentrated black fruit bouquet with forest floor backing and dashes of tapenade for me all swirl up the glass. It has plenty of structural heft and the fruit is shiny and delicious. It would be not-hard to see 10 more years of goodness in this wine—awesome to see how well it’s aged.
1840 Borges Boal Solera
Walter mentioned this was purchased from Christie’s as well. Their tasting note: "Amber bronze with just a hint of green at rim. Aromas of dried persimmons, walnuts, limes, praline. Medium-full. Proper Boal sweetness. More persimmons and walnuts on the palate. Decent acidity. Brown sugar with good length and intensity.
This aroma is sooo pretty. Perfume and potpourri are really there, roses. And goodness. It is ooh-la-la-licious. It has wonderful drive with toffee-tinged yellow fruit. Star fruit and raisins also make an appearance, but this wine really makes it for me with how beautifully textured and balanced and suave it is. I have to say, this was my favourite of the 3 we tried and a truly marvelous wine. 94
2017 Domaine Arnoux Pere et Fils Chorey-Les-Beaune Les Beaumonts
Chestnuts aplenty, rusticity on the nose. Curled and controlled palate of raspberry and light earth and mocha tones. Quite nice for what it is.
We did finish with a quick glass of 5 year Miles Medium Dry Tinta Negra. It was pleasant but unremarkable–I think Walter has had better bottles in the past.
Again, this was a truly special evening, the best part being wine lovers gathered together in community of spirit and appreciation for an evening like this. It goes to Walter’s heart that he wanted to do this—to bring people together, some of whom had not met each other before. I hope to remember not just the wines, but the people and conversations for many a year to come.
Thank you, my friend!
Mike
