1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

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TJie Vineyards and Wines of Madeira.

On the first and second floors of the building of which we have been speaking wines of a lower and intermediate quality are stored, one of the best among them being a Verdelho fine of delicate flavour and pleasant aroma, with some young wines promising to develop into high-class Madeiras. After visiting sundry other stores, where miscellaneous parcels of wine are kept,including one newlyrentedfor housinga portion ofthe firm's purchases of new mosto,we proceeded to the ancient armazem where Messrs. Erohn have their finer wines collected. This venerable store is entered through a narrow paved court, and the various floors, with the heavy burdens they are all required to bear, are supported on sturdy rafters. The large butts have little black tablets hanging to them indicating their contents- We tasted here an excellent dry and slightly pungent shipping wine,then a sample which proved beautifully round and mellow, next a wine both delicate and splendidly matured; also a straw- coloured Verdelho fino, extremely soft and refined in flavour, which had been heated up to a temperature of 120 deg., and had had no more than 4 per cent, of spirit added to it. This wine is shipped principally to Scotland, France, and Eussia, being known in the latter country under the name of White Madeira. We were subsequently shown some very dry Cama de Lobes, vintage1874,which after being six months in an ordinary estufa at 120deg.had passed anotherfour months in the sun. This was followed by a Cama de Lobos of 1868, a powerful, sub-pungent and aromatic wine, with vinho velhissimo from the same locality, very strong, yet wonderfully soft, which had developed an ex quisite bouquet and a slightly nutty flavour. This wine was thirty-nine years old, and had been acquired by the firm some eight years ago at nearly ^200 a pipe. Some reserve wine proved alike dry and soft, with an agreeable sub-pungency of flavour and a flne vinous bouquet. Among other wines we noted some deep-coloured old Malmsey,with a Tinta ofthe year 1869i and,above all, a deliciously soft and slightly sweet Bual, with a very fragrant bouquet—a wine which the King of Bavaria is