NV Blandy's Rich Malmsey Medeira 10 Year Old
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Tasting notes
Tasted from a 37.5-cl sample bottle. Average age of 10 years from oak casks in the canteiro system. TA 6.5 g/l, VA 0.42 g/l, RS 125 g/l, pH 3.42. Certified BCorp. The smell of church pews and incense, the taste of Christmas cake – thick and dense and rich and dark – steeped in brandy. Raisins and cloves and black pepper. Not too sweet at all. Whipcrack tension in the smoky acidity. (TC)
Critic scores
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Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
The richest and sweetest style for 10-year-old wine is the NV Malmsey 10 Year Old, a grape dominant in the north of the island, in the region of São Jorge, fortified to 19% alcohol and keeping 125 grams of unfermented sugar. It's floral, spicy and smoky, nutty and complex, with a velvety palate, warm and rich. This is the sweetest of the grapes. I tasted the August 2024 bottling, but there's no information of the bottling date. The 10 Year Old range of wines now have a transparent color with colorful labels, one for each variety.
Approximate RS of 120 g/l. Shoe leather! There's a definite mustiness to this, which is all correct in context. Plenty of sweetness without any sickliness. Dried fruit, of course, and a touch of spirit on the finish. Dried fruit, caramel, treacle. (RH)
Vinified in stainless steel, aged in canteiro. RS 123 g/l, 6.5 g/l. Smells like raisins, tastes like whisky barrels dipped in honey and apricot syrup. Nice citrus-oil bitterness, like chewing cumin seeds, like breathing smoke over peat and like tasting the sting of salt spray with a kiss of dark manuka honey and fig jam. Pretty complex for a 10 Year Old. I'd pair this with smoked beef and creamed horseradish. (TC)