Henriques & Henriques - Sercial 1971

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 1971 Sercial was aged for 38 years in the traditional canteiro method before being bottled in 2010. "Dark golden brown without any hint of orange. Lifted nose of ancient raisins, roasted dried apricots, burning chalk, incredibly harmonious. Explosive, with acidity washing over the middle and back palate and throwing flavors back into the middle. Sweet earth, oyster shell, crazy roast-apricot tang, and incredibly concentrated. Gets drier and fresher on the finish, with an inherent concentration."