Karen MacNeil’s Wine Bible claims that you shouldn’t bother with Rainwater.  It’s not worth drinking.  If anything, you should take your Rainwater, leave it by your stove, and consider it your cooking wine.  So what should you drink?  Why the minimum of course, 5 year aged Madeira!  Is Blandy’s 5 Year Malmsey Madeira worth paying the step up from it’s Rainwater cousins?

Sight:  Pouring a chocolatey brown, just edged off soy sauce.  There’s a nutty caramel as it runs from the core to the fringe.

Smell:  Caramel, pecans, and walnuts all join in, before marrying up with hoisin, smoke, deeply concentrated maple syrup, and touches of dried fruits.  The nuttiness is reminiscent of a granola bar.

Sip:  The body is firm, fat, and full of latent sugary notes.  While not straight up cloying, it’s definitely packed with burnt sugars and hints of dark caramel / molasses.  The flavors of nuts shine through on the brightness of the acidity, and pop with the roasty notes of walnuts, pecans, and hazelnuts.    There are other notes of dried figs, chocolate, raisins, and again, hoisin.

Savor:  The ending is rich as the body, adding in notes of deeply caramelized fruit sugars, spices, and a huge hit of nuts.  The finish lasts with grip and power.

Blandy’s 5 Year Malmsey Madeira has a powerful backbone of acidity, with a velvet fist that comes laced with blocks of nuts.  The richness here is well worth the mark up over a rainwater, especially if you’re drinking it on it’s own.  There are a lot of interesting flavors that linger in the background here, and give it complexity.  Blandy’s 5 Year Malmsey Maderia is a great deal if you want to try the forefathers favorite wine.

Verdict:  Burnt Caramel, Roasted Nuts, Hoisin, Acidity, Semi-sweet
Rating: 90
Price: $25
Madeira, Portugal

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