Henriques & Henriques - Sercial 1964
Price: $545.00
| Producer | Henriques & Henriques |
| Country | Portugal |
| Region | Madeira |
| Varietal | Sercial |
| Vintage | 1964 |
| Sku | 018005 |
| ABV | 21.00% |
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The history of Henriques & Henriques goes back to 1425, when, according to legend, Infante Dom Henriques planted the first vines on the island of Madeira. However, the firm Henriques & Henriques was founded in 1850 as a partidista — someone who buys stocks or makes their own wine and sells it to the larger shippers — from the family's vineyard holdings on the island. In 1925, H&H began to bottle and export Madeira made entirely from their own vineyards, something unique among producers and shippers. To this day, Henriques & Henriques own the largest single vineyard on the island — the 10-hectare Quinta Grande — and boast an impressive selection of vintage and solera bottlings dating from before 1925 in the family's cellars. Perhaps most important, H&H have been in the vanguard of vineyard plantings and preservation of the noble grapes of Madeira: Sercial, Verdelho, Boal and Malvasia. Their age-statement varietal wines are viewed as the benchmark of quality.
Henriques & Hernriques 1964 Sercial was aged for 41 years in the traditional canteiro method before being bottled in 2006. "Medium brown with a ruddy cast. Incredibly expressive on the nose, with notes of fresh seaweed, bergamot, unpeated island Scotch, and the finest of Taiwanese oolongs. On the palate, the attack is very slightly sweeter and orangey, and the acid is very complex, never getting in the way. Some fresh and dried flowers, and Riesling-y apple and petrol, turning drier and more energetic the whole way to a mineral and energetic finish. A captivating wine that still allows a pairing with oysters or other shellfish."
