Time doesn’t always matter or does it?!
Its one of the younger wineries on the island Vinhos Barbeito founded back in 1946 by Mario Barbeito. I met Ricardo de Freitas back at Germany where he showed me quite a different face of Madeira wines: young, innovative (just look and read the labels for instance), full of power yet with elegance and expression. Perhaps a little bit different? Yes, perhaps, let’s see why…

The winery  set up a joint venture with a Japanese company (Kinoshita) in 1991, the main aim was to produce nothing but high quality Madeira wines. Creating a unique style, by being fresh, food friendly and fruity a sort of gap between tradition and new, exploring the diverse nature of Madeira. The new winery was built in 2008 just out side of Camara de Lobos, in an industrial park high up the hills.

The winery uses robotic lagares and lots of stainless steel tanks. All temperature controlled and of course the traditional way of doing Madeira (canteiros) is still in place beside the estufas. If I understood it correctly (and I was surprised) the winery uses quite a bit of French oak for aging. The range of wines goes from the simple 3, 5 years old to the more serious 10 years old, single harvest, single cask and vintage wines. Japan is the main market for their wines.

Visit the place…fantastic view and education

Just when I arrived outside of the industrial park a big truck with spirit for the fortification pulled up. Leandro was saying everything is strictly monitored what spirit and where does it come from. As with the other Madeira producers (apart from H&H) no body really owns land on the vineyard where the grapes are harvested. “We need people who take care of the land, it’s mostly hobby and weekend job” – said Leandro. Land is expensive and with the low average salary it’s not a bad extra income which people can sometimes realize, not to mention to provide the foundation to the great wines of Madeira. The winery buys from roughly 130 families’ grapes.

Sub tropical weather, not as hot as you would imagine, but sometimes a hot wind blows from Africa. The sea will retain some heat. Beside the especial climate of Madeira it’s the soil which is very interesting, volcanic and highly acidic. Leandro was pointing out the bananas, there are small and not really sweet, but have a unique taste.

Shortcut of the grapes and making of…
Terrantez very rare grape, the main reason difficulty of grafting. Sercial has excellent acidity it’s often compared to the qualities of Riesling. Verdelho comes mainly from the Northern part of the island, a good go gather. Bual similar to Sercial high acidity some like to have it in the warmer South some in the North retains more acidity. Malvasia, is going back just around the discovery of the island (1419) it is though to be introduced from Greece around 1445. And lets not forget the Tinta Negra (not Mole) universally planted very resistant with good yields this red grape, not very demanding too.
The Tinta Negra goes mainly to the pneumatic press in the winery the others mainly undergo the robotic lagares. This simulates the foot treading method, very gentle actually. But at the same time it extracts more colour and fuller bodied wines are produced.

The heat insulations looked quite serious as some tanks are outside and a lot goes through pipes. The maceration is temperature controled so is the fermentation starting from 18°C up to 26°C the red Tinta Negra slightly higher. Fermentation is stopped according to style by the 96% alcohol.

In the estufagem system there is only occasionally cask aging involved, 3 months up to 45°C. Gelatin, benonite is used for clarification, fining.
A sort of zinc foil is on the top of the roof, which retains the heat better was Leandro pointing out.

During the canteiro aging which is inevitably longer the casks on the top have a bigger evaporation rate, roughly 2-5% is lost, the angle share. The winters are colder and the nights can be as cool as 10C, if you open the windows fresh air gets in, helps the circulation and you see the wine is awake, it changes and it is alive – continued Leandro. And if the canteiro aging would be for certain cask too fast you would move the wine to a different spot. The wine has to concentrate naturally, sugar and acidity and all the different aromas and substances which give Madeira it’s characteristics taste and note.

Coming to the tasting
Vinhos Barbeito on the outskirts of Camara de Lobos built a state of the art winery and they certainly live up to the technology making pure wine but not loosing the string to the history and tradition. Fresh wines great with food not too heavy but certainly serious. A bit different, perhaps unusual too, but who mind as long as they respect tradition and deliver great quality.

The tasting notes and more
7/07/2011
To see the theory in practice is always great fun not to mention education. So Leandro showed me two different wines one treated with the robotic lagare and the other not really in contact with the skin (bica…something)
The one on the left deep ruby colour bit like port (fresh ruby) nose of dried fruit, but a lot of black cherry and bramble action. The one on the left bit more cornflakes and sandal wood, not really interesting. Clearly out of the two unfinished wines the lagare showed better.

Now, caramel vs. no caramel
You can guess which is which on the picture below. Well, yes the left one has seen some caramel (both Tinta Negra by the way), there is no evident sweetness perhaps a little softer and appealing I reckon it’s more about the colour. The one on the right with pale golden colour has a slightly more aggressive nose, good acidity fresh and crisp attack. Would caramel just alter the colour or mask a bit the acidity too?

Sercial 10 years old

Bright golden colour, nutty almond nose. Yet some whiff of coconut and a dash of tropicalness with basil leaf in the background and spice. Dry(ish), great acidity, lots of nuttiness touch of tropical feeling fig and prune continuation. Hint of minerality. A great match to oyster, fish or sea food in general if you can adopt it.

V.B. Reserva, 7, 136, 272 Lot 3
Reserva says at least 5 years in cask. V.B. stands for Verdelho which is suppose to give acidity and freshness and Bual responsible for structure and depth. Golden colour, slightly closed nose. Soft touch on the palate with some beeswax, nuttiness and plenty of freshness. Medium sweet round and elegant finish. There is certain lightness to the wine, despite 19% ABV.

Colheita 2000
Single harvest medium dry. Tinta Negra was harvested at the 2 different dates and was blended in the winery (the wines). Minimum 5 years in cask. Good acidity with some nuttiness and a touch of salty note. Round, simple finish.

Colheita 1997
Single harvest from Tinta Negra. Another good example for the quality of the grape (is not as bad as it’s often written about it). Deep golden colour with a hint of brownish note. Open nose full of pungent dried fruit, some glue, raisin, pine tree notes. Plumy some floral notes in the background. Off dry, good acidity, round and soft with high alcohol, easy to appreciate.

Bual 2001 48, 84
Blend of two casks (the back label – too long for my taste but surely interesting will tell the story). Deep golden colour with a hint of brown note. Soft on the nose, spicy attack cinnamon, fig and prune coming straight after. Not too full bodied, but great acidity, round finish medium sweet but gentle.

Malvasia 2000 single cask, 39a+e
This indicated a warehouse movement (again check the back label). Deepish golden colour, sweet spice lots of fig and prune full attack very pronounced on the nose. Sweet and intense attack on the palate, plenty of plum, dried fruit and a touch of caramel. Full bodied no doubt and sweet, yet great acidity.

Malvasia 20 anos, Lote 10292
Blend of 7 wines, some more then 60 years old.
Deep golden colour bit of VA some raisin and pine tree on the nose. Complex some smoke and tobacco note, fine cigar box. Lot to discover. Sweet on the palate, fullish attack, great acidity hint of jam and marmalade, complex finish.

Sercial Frasqueira 1978
Golden deep colour with a touch of brownness. Deep spice and some smoke with notes of grapefruit (?). Not quite dry, but in Madeira terms dry. Yet with a lot of elegance, precision and richness, hint of minerality in combination of spice, burned sugar soft tobacco great balance between everything. Fantastic mouths feel very good drive and long finish with fantastic acidity.

The next two wine are sort of special editions, I guess you could call it “private reserve”

Malvasia 1899
Brownish colour with an orange bright golden rim. Full of cigar box notes lots of fig and jamminess, takes time to open up nevertheless, fantastic. Plenty of spice, cinnamon, herbs and a lot more. Sweet on the palate but very vibrant full bodied, cashew nuts, tobacco, coffee and very elegant. Fantastic acidity great support to the sweetness, very rich and full notes indeed long and powerful wine, despite the age.

Malvasia 1834
Brownish colour with an orange, golden rim hint of greenness. Fairly decent amount of VA, but wait…it opens up slowly fig, prune, fine cigar smoke with delicate spice and herbs opens up. Sweet but still great acidity, intense wine with rich finish and great history. Fantastic.

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