1908 Reserva Boal
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Tasting notes
Tasted from a mini sample bottle. It's tasting wines like this that really remind me of the extraordinary, rule-defying, mind-bending miracle of Madeira. That a wine that is 115 years old can be so vibrant, so electric with life, so very much itself, so almost untouched by time is surely magic? If not, then magic does not exist. The acidity is so laser-like and so high-pitched that I can almost hear it. Stars, scientists have discovered, hum. A celestial song on the frequencies of the universe. Perhaps this is what this wine would sound like if you had the right equipment. But it's also sweet and sour, like tiny new green apples chopped up with dried peaches, and ripe fresh-picked strawberries tossed with garden sorrel and sweet mint. It has a breathy gentleness and a dusty whisper. I don't know how I dare to describe it. A once-in-a-lifetime wine. (TC)
Critic scores
Richard Hemming MW, jancisrobinson.com
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Bottled in 2008, the 1908 Boal Reserva is just as saturated in color and concentrated in flavor as one would expect, offering up complex aromas of figs, walnuts, warm spices, beeswax and pitch. Full-bodied, dense and muscular, it's searingly intense, with huge depth, sapidity and extract; but after a century in wood and demijohn, this is more of a wine reduction than a wine itself, and just like some of the most hyper-concentrated wines of Jerez, this is easier to sip than it is to drink.
Bottled 2008. Still commercially available . Dark brown. Fox-red rim. Super rich and so concentrated. A little painful to taste at this not-so-ripe old age. But it does show the possibilities. Burnt caramel. Somehow this tastes, as well as looks, black! (JR)
Bottled 2008. Russet brown, rather discreet and yet with lacquer, old oak, library books, thick viscosity, still very, very bright with minty tones to maintain freshness, baked notes, aromatic and stupendously well-separated range of flavour with tanginess and warm, balanced alcohol. (RH)