Legendary Sweet Wines of Portugal: The BEST of the Best of Port & Madeira
Portugal's two main styles of fortified wine—Port and Madeira—are legendary for their aging potential. For Port, many of these can age for several decades in the bottle. In the case of Madeira, most of them can literally live forever, in that they ne...
Madeira
Crafted on the Portuguese island of Madeira, and deliberately exposed to both air and heat, these fortified wines are nearly indestructible, and are nearly unmatched in their hedonistic pleasure.
This wine is glorious: nutty, with fantastic acidity, great length, and almost overwhelming amounts of dried fig, Christmas spices, burnt sugar, brandy, dry sherry, dried herbs, and toasted caramel.
Sourced from vines planted on the northern side of the island of Madeira, there’s plenty of sea-like salty freshness in this lighter style Madeira to accompany the white fig, herbal spices, leafy greens, and toasted nuts.
Supple, sultry, and seductive, you’ll find resin, raisin, and plum compote in abundance. There is probably no dessert on Earth heavy enough to topple this finger-licking wine.
Sporting a wonderful palate richness with flavors of rum raisin and figs, this epic Madeira is powerful, long, and top-notch.
This is a premium and delicious take on what is usually considered the lower-end, working horse grape variety of Madeira.
With incredibly pure wood spice and mineral aromas, deep dried-fruit flavors, this wine has a texture that is both elegant and titillatingly sweet.
Founded in 1850, D’Oliveiras has some of the largest stock of older Madeira wine available. This 1927 is fruity, zesty, nutty, and freakishly delicious.
Harvested before the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco were even incorporated, this legendary wine drinks like the textbook definition of vintage Madeira: saline, licorice, herbs, balsamic, cigar spices, figs, cedar, brown sugar, dried fruits, ...
Port
Portugal's most famous fortified dessert wines are made from grapes grown in the inland region of the Douro Valley.
Green herbs, white figs, rancio hints, and almond-like nuttiness make this rare white Port a fascinating experience.
A blend of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, and Tinta Barroca, two-plus decades of aging has barely scratched this spicy, savory, muscular, rich, and broad-shouldered Port.
Swirling amongst all of the sugar, nuttiness, caramel, and toast is a surprising freshness that lifts every sip of this excellent 20-year dessert wine.
The palate freshness of this rich Tawny comes as a bit of a pleasant surprise, countering its balsamic concentration and waxy richness.
Deep richness, lovely freshness, intense spiciness, great balance, all in one package. It’s the real deal.
This Port has a beautiful nose that’s almost reminiscent of a Fino Sherry, mingling with spices and dried figs, saline, and minerals, all showing fantastic purity.
While 50 is the average age of the wines in this blend, mix contains stock that ranges from 40 to 70 years old. Muscular, pure, long, nutty, concentrated, and focused, you could spend days detailing the complexity on this.