Fine Old Malmsey

This is a Madiera wine. It's a dessert wine, not something you'd drink with a steak, but rather, something you'd relax by the fireplace with afterwards. Madira wine is fortified (has alcohol added to it in various forms) and has been heat treated. At least that's the way they used to do it. The story is that ships carried wine and they got warm in the hold during the voyage and were thought spoiled, but in fact took on a nice taste and became popular.

I suspect the wine will be fine if stored well. Fortified wines don't age the same way regular ones do.

I don't know what it would be worth, but a lot depends on storage. If you don't like dessert wines, send it to me and I'll be happy to let you know how it tasted. If you do like dessert wines, enjoy it now. Or soon after you hear from others on the list. :)

Jose

Madeira comes in types, made from various grapes, that range from quite dry to quite sweet. Malmsey is the sweetest type usually offered, but a good example has plenty of acidity to balance the sweetness. In the past, Madeira was offered as a true vintage wine with a date or as a solera wine which is a blend of many years. Often a true vintage Madeira is better, but not always. Often, for a given maker, the solera is better than their reserve or wine without any other indication. Some older Madeiras sometimes said solera 18xx, for example. All this indicated is that 18xx was the oldest wine in the blend, and it could only be a few drops. Current standards for the grapes used in Madeira and the labeling are more strict than in the past.

Your wine is not so old by Madeira standards. The best examples of vintage Madeira from the early 1800s and even late 1700s often are still very good. Even if in perfect condition, I doubt if your wine would bring a very high price at auction, so the best plan might be to drink it yourself, if you think you might like this type of wine. As a rough guide, it might have the sweetness of a rich cream Sherry, but it likely would have more acid, and a different, intense taste. This type of wine can stand up to very rich food such as dark fruitcake, etc if you want to drink it with food.

Madeira

One form: distilled neutral grape spirit.

They still do it that way.

Madeira is practically indestructible. It will be fine even if not stored well.

That's too much of a generalisation. Some, like vintage ports, need decades to blossom fully, some, like fino sherries, will beginn to decline after half a year in bottle. Madeira people rather feel that ageing should be done in cask, further bottle age does not add anything, but does no harm either.

Not in the case of Madeira that - as you correctly mentioned - is heated in the "estufagem" process which gives a controlled oxidation flavour.

Oh, and one more advantage for Madeira: Once opened, the wine in will keep unchanged for months and years. So no hurry to drink it up.

M.