Malmsey – Malvazia
Malmsey or Malvazia to give its Madeiran name is the wine that Madeira is most famous for and is a dark rich sweet wine, with a musky fragrant nose, this is a very sweet wine that lingers on the palate. Malmsey has vanilla notes, along with molasses, walnuts and caramel.
This Blandy’s 10 years old Malmsey has note of fruit and marmalade as well as gentle burnt sugar aroma. Well balanced with a smooth viscous texture and perfect acidity.
This wine from certain producers has coffee flavours and other wines are more noted for dried fruit especially raisins. Other producers’ wines exhibit honey notes, but as all the wines age the flavours can be said to become darker with dark chocolate, coffee, cinnamon and spice and a stronger dried fruit note creeps into the wines.
Malmsey is a robust wine that is able to accompany any dessert, and as with most Madeira wines is at 18 to 19% ABV a rich smooth and very gently warming and wonderful experience. It is often asked is this a dessert wine or a liqueur? well it seems to bridge both categories.
This 10 year old from Broadbent offers notes of caramel, dark chocolate and toffee. Sweet with mandarin as well as gently floral soft and richly textured with a mellow but strong character.
As with all Madeira wines, this wine ages and vintages or Frasqueiras labelled Malmsey or Malvasia are to be found at most wine lodges and specialist retailers.
Malmsey with Christmas Confections
This is a luscious wine to enjoy with a rich dessert. Desserts were made for this wine, as are sweet mince pies, Christmas cakes, Stolen cakes and other rich Christmas fruit confections. At 30 years old Malmsey is as close to perfection as is possible for a Madeira wine that can be bought off the shelf at H.M Borges in Funchal.
With an Intense aroma of exotic wood, notes of honey, tobacco, spices, chocolate, vanilla and toasted almonds and even a slight iodine aroma, on the nose this wine is just amazing.
The taste is a wonder engaging the drinker with influence from the wooden barrel, then becoming rich and complex. There are notes of dried fruit, vanilla and gentle curry spice. Superbly well-structured acidity and body in harmony with the sweetness and tannins.
Malmsey with Cheese and Christmas cake
A particularly excellent way to enjoy a glass of Malmsey is with a piece of Christmas cake accompanies by a slice of white stilton cheese, or even better Christmas cake accompanied with a piece of rich wonderful Wensleydale cheese from Yorkshire.
Malmsey with Chocolate, with Fruit, with Ice cream or all three
Chocolate desserts served with Malmsey are greatly enhanced, as is fresh pineapple…..pour the wine onto the fruit for a real treat! Ice creams and sorbets are also great partners for this wonderful, sweet wine. Infact there are few desserts this wine cannot accompany and enhance.
With respect and amazement
Malmsey wine ages, and vintages of great age can be found, but the aging process often leads to the wines becoming a little drier and less sweet. Never the less, this is an amazing wine, its provenance today sadly underrated given the history and quality of these wines and are long overdue re-discovery.
Almost twice as much Malmsey or Malvasia to give this grape its Madeiran name is produced than Sercial or Verdelho. This is the wine that made Madeiran wines world famous, and you can read more about this grape: Malmsey and the Madeira wine bottlers who produce this wine.
Between 75,000 and 100,000 litres of this wine is produced on Madeira annually. The majority of this wine will be produced using the canteiro process.
The Producers
There are the producers of Madeira wines on the island at present, but the plethora of labels and brands available tells you that there were once a lot more. They are:
Barbeito, Blandy’s, Borges, D’Oliveira, Faria, Henriques and Henriques and Justino’s