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The 1968 Bual has a light wet tobacco, dried honey and chlorophyll scented bouquet that would benefit from a little more delineation. The palate is precise on the entry with fine tannins and there is a keen thread of orange peel and bitter lemon that defines the focused, precise, youthful finish. It is very fine, but this is one Madeira that needs a little more bottle age. My “road to Damascus” was a Bual 1920 tasted in the Old Blandy Wine Lodge in Funchal. Up until then, I had assumed I would dislike Madeira. How wrong I was! So I will always have a great deal of time for this major house, which supplies around one-third of all Madeira sold and celebrated their bicentennial last year. I have detailed the history of Blandy’s on several occasions and so I advise readers to seek out my article “The Atlantic Jewel” (http://www.erobertparker.com/members/nmartin/nm1382.asp) on Wine-Journal for further information. Basically, Blandy’s is a brand under the Madeira Wine Company, who also stencil the bottles under Leacock, Cossart Gordon and very occasionally, Miles. There are subtle differences between them in terms of style, Blandy’s undergoing shorter fermentation and sweeter, perhaps more commercial. Cossart can be light and drier; Leacock’s richer. In this report, I thought it would be clearer to list the producer as the brand rather than the company. They have a talented winemaker in the form of Francisco Albuquerque, and in Chris Blandy, they have new blood coming on-line, a mature head on young shoulders, someone with ideas to usher both Blandy’s and Madeira itself into the 21st century. An example is the unusually modern packaging for their Alvada, which is specifically aimed to appeal to members of the human race without white hair and several grandchildren. Most of the following Reserva wines would have been bottled in 2011. Importer: Premium Port Wines Inc., San Francisco, CA; Tel: (415) 554-9920; Fax: (415) 554-0380
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Neal Martin
Neal Martin, Wine Advocate
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The 1968 Bual has a light wet tobacco, dried honey and chlorophyll scented bouquet that would benefit from a little more delineation. The palate is precise on the entry with fine tannins and there is a keen thread of orange peel and bitter lemon that defines the focused, precise, youthful finish. It is very fine, but this is one Madeira that needs a little more bottle age.||My “road to Damascus” was a Bual 1920 tasted in the Old Blandy Wine Lodge in Funchal. Up until then, I had assumed I would dislike Madeira. How wrong I was! So I will always have a great deal of time for this major house, which supplies around one-third of all Madeira sold and celebrated their bicentennial last year. I have detailed the history of Blandy’s on several occasions and so I advise readers to seek out my article “The Atlantic Jewel” (http://www.erobertparker.com/members/nmartin/nm1382.asp) on Wine-Journal for further information. Basically, Blandy’s is a brand under the Madeira Wine Company, who also stencil the bottles under Leacock, Cossart Gordon and very occasionally, Miles. There are subtle differences between them in terms of style, Blandy’s undergoing shorter fermentation and sweeter, perhaps more commercial. Cossart can be light and drier; Leacock’s richer. In this report, I thought it would be clearer to list the producer as the brand rather than the company. They have a talented winemaker in the form of Francisco Albuquerque, and in Chris Blandy, they have new blood coming on-line, a mature head on young shoulders, someone with ideas to usher both Blandy’s and Madeira itself into the 21st century. An example is the unusually modern packaging for their Alvada, which is specifically aimed to appeal to members of the human race without white hair and several grandchildren. Most of the following Reserva wines would have been bottled in 2011. Importer: Premium Port Wines Inc., San Francisco, CA; Tel: (415) 554-9920; Fax: (415) 554-0380 eRobertParker.com.August, 2012