d'Oliveiras Sercial 1971
Lovely, complex rancio and toffee aroma with a streak of citrus for freshness; super acidity - what was it that Broadbent said about some brut nature Champagne: gargling with razorblades? - well, that's about the structure of this. This is a "young" wine still but the complexity is already obvious. Outstanding. Despite being so youthful, I so loved the high acidity structure that this might just have been my favourite wine of the night.
Barbeito Verdelho 1981
Cloudy colour, but the wine was wonderful. A slightly grassy/greenish aroma; lovely freshness, fairly dry, intense but not at all as intense as the Sercial above! But lovely stuff anyways.
d'Oliveiras Terrantez 1977
A sweeter scent than the previous two: fresh plums and also rancio, VA and all the lovely goodies that Madeira has. But the palate doesn't really seem sweet; it is fairly rich but it is bracing, too. Lovely freshness. Wonderful!
Barbeito Boal 1960
Chalk and rancio, pruney. Obviously sweet (perhaps the only wine tonight that I can say that about), but with the wonderful cleansing bitterness of an espresso shot. Wonderful!
Barbeito Boal 1863
Not a very expressive nose: scorched dust and malty like a Porter. Rich, but without the sweetness of the 1960, wonderfully lively with a citric laser cutting through the sweetness. The scent was ok, but the palate was outstanding!
Barbeito Malvazia 1834
A wonderful dry/anti-sweet smell of dried figs - one would need the literary skills of Joyce to describe this. Supreme intensity and the taste of figs continues on the palate; wonderful acidity that makes it seem dry and racy and moreish despite the RS and the richness and the supremely intense finish. Outstanding.
And finally we had a Cossart Gordon Bual Colheita 1995 which didn't really seem like Madeira at all: no real VA, it just smelled a bit of glue. The palate was sweet and lacked acidic definition. Not very enjoyable.