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1 bottle per lot
Details
FINEST MADEIRA SPANNING TWO CENTURIES
Madeira, "enduring and endearing", long-lived and virtually indestructible.
The following wines will be in superb drinking condition and have the added advantage of keeping fresh for weeks after opening. Historically Madeira was not only the fashionable and
day-to-day drink of the American colonial and post revolutionary years, but, with claret, featured in James Christie's first-ever sale in December 1766.
Madeira made from classic Sercial grape is dry to medium dry, Verdelho - which I consider the most versatile to drink - medium, Bual medium sweet to sweet and Malmsey sweet dessert wines. The rare Bastardo and Terrantez, both difficult, "shy" late ripening varieties are rich and tangy.
A note regarding "vintage" and "solera" Madeira. Strictly speaking a vintage Madeira is a wine made in the specified vintage year, matured in cask and either bottled from the cask or stored in glass demijohns after sufficient cask age to be preserved until bottled and marketed. A "solera" starts off life made in the always-stated vintage year, matured in cask but refreshed from time to time with the wine of the same grape variety, style and quality. If life was so simple. In practice, certainly in regard to old Madeiras, it is difficult if not impossible to tell whether a wine is straight unblended vintage Madeira or legitimately refreshed. Christie's present cataloguing policy is therefore not to state "vintage" (unless there is good reason to believe that the wine is entirely of one vintage) but rather simply to indicate the year after the name of the grape. Contrary to many people's perception, true vintage wines are not necessarily superior to soleras; indeed, the latter are frequently more beautiful to drink. For this reason the Josey collection of Madeiras have been catalogued in straightforward chronological order.
MB
Blandy's 1792 Madeira bottled in 1840
Lot 365-366 levels: very top shoulder; remains of wax capsules and small remains of labels
These labels, even though incomplete are authentic. MB
Parcel: lots 365-366
Provenance : the Emperor Napoleon, Grabham, Gaselee, Avery, Johnson.
This is one of the most historic and discussed Madeiras on record.
On 7th August 1815, the ship carrying the deposed Napoleon Bonaparte anchored off Funchal en route to St. Helena. No one was allowed on board except the British Consul General who delivered fresh fruit, books and a cask of 1792 vintage Madeira. The wine was neither consumed nor paid for. After Napoleon's death the cask was returned and, in 1840, bottled by Blandy's, some of which found its way into the collection of a famous Madeira connoisseur, Dr. Michael Grabham, acquired later by Sir Stephen Gaselee from whose widow Ronald Avery purchased the remaining stock. In time, a range of the old Grabham Madeiras were bought by a Mr Johnson, an anglophile American, whose widow sold the collection at Christie's in September 1977. MB
1 bottle per lot
Madeira, "enduring and endearing", long-lived and virtually indestructible.
The following wines will be in superb drinking condition and have the added advantage of keeping fresh for weeks after opening. Historically Madeira was not only the fashionable and
day-to-day drink of the American colonial and post revolutionary years, but, with claret, featured in James Christie's first-ever sale in December 1766.
Madeira made from classic Sercial grape is dry to medium dry, Verdelho - which I consider the most versatile to drink - medium, Bual medium sweet to sweet and Malmsey sweet dessert wines. The rare Bastardo and Terrantez, both difficult, "shy" late ripening varieties are rich and tangy.
A note regarding "vintage" and "solera" Madeira. Strictly speaking a vintage Madeira is a wine made in the specified vintage year, matured in cask and either bottled from the cask or stored in glass demijohns after sufficient cask age to be preserved until bottled and marketed. A "solera" starts off life made in the always-stated vintage year, matured in cask but refreshed from time to time with the wine of the same grape variety, style and quality. If life was so simple. In practice, certainly in regard to old Madeiras, it is difficult if not impossible to tell whether a wine is straight unblended vintage Madeira or legitimately refreshed. Christie's present cataloguing policy is therefore not to state "vintage" (unless there is good reason to believe that the wine is entirely of one vintage) but rather simply to indicate the year after the name of the grape. Contrary to many people's perception, true vintage wines are not necessarily superior to soleras; indeed, the latter are frequently more beautiful to drink. For this reason the Josey collection of Madeiras have been catalogued in straightforward chronological order.
MB
Blandy's 1792 Madeira bottled in 1840
Lot 365-366 levels: very top shoulder; remains of wax capsules and small remains of labels
These labels, even though incomplete are authentic. MB
Parcel: lots 365-366
Provenance : the Emperor Napoleon, Grabham, Gaselee, Avery, Johnson.
This is one of the most historic and discussed Madeiras on record.
On 7th August 1815, the ship carrying the deposed Napoleon Bonaparte anchored off Funchal en route to St. Helena. No one was allowed on board except the British Consul General who delivered fresh fruit, books and a cask of 1792 vintage Madeira. The wine was neither consumed nor paid for. After Napoleon's death the cask was returned and, in 1840, bottled by Blandy's, some of which found its way into the collection of a famous Madeira connoisseur, Dr. Michael Grabham, acquired later by Sir Stephen Gaselee from whose widow Ronald Avery purchased the remaining stock. In time, a range of the old Grabham Madeiras were bought by a Mr Johnson, an anglophile American, whose widow sold the collection at Christie's in September 1977. MB
1 bottle per lot