1968 Blandy's Sercial Madeira
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Tasting notes
RS 59 g/l, VA 1.02 g/l, TA 10.1 g/l. Canteiro aged, American oak. Bottled 2017. Deep mahogany-red core, wide white rim. More cloudy than the other madeiras tasted in this masterclass. Also lots of VA, but there is a caramel butterscotch richness and buttery cooked quince. Tannic, bitter and oaky and absolutely driven by acidity. A fierce, fierce wine. Cliff-edge, confrontational, terrifying. This needs to go with food and I’d serve it with steak and truffle butter or smoked lamb and a preserved-lemon pesto as well as Wareing’s lemon lentil dip with the raisin and mustard-seed pickle and curried carrots. Smoky, oaky, and really, really exciting! (TC)
Critic scores
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Bottled in 2018 and matured for 49 years in seasoned American oak casks, the 1968 Sercial exhibits a complex bouquet of mocha, baked apple, praline, dates, fine furniture polish and marmalade. On the palate, it's medium to full-bodied, satiny and incisive, with tangy acids, good concentration and a long, precise finish. With 59 grams per liter residual sugar and ten grams total acidity, it's a tangy Sercial that benefits considerably from aeration, becoming progressively more complete and integrated: two weeks after opening, the last glass was decidedly the best.
Blandy’s 1968 Sercial (Bottled 2017) has a potent, oxidative nose replete with scents of grilled walnut, smoke, dried orange peel and faint nougat aromas mucking about in the background. The palate is well balanced with a sharp line of acidity. It is not an overly complex Sercial, leaning towards the richer side of the category. It fans out nicely towards the finish with clove, Chinese 5-spice and marmalade notes. What it lacks in nuance this Bual compensates for with delineation and focus.