Boal Medium Sweet Colheita (bottled 2013, 12yo) 2001

Bottled in 2013 at 12 years barrel aged. Aged via the canteiro process, which stacks barrels in warehouses, where the wine is gently warmed to create madeira's distinct style. 100% Boal (Bual/Malvasia Fina), with between 80-100g/L residual sugar. 

A delightful nose combines dark honey with herbal/vegetal, red date, hazelnut, smoke and wood-aged aromas. There's a range of forest smells (wood, damp foliage, sweet, fresh clean air ...), faded plum and a maritime pungency (very much a Boal character) of iodine engendering an umami rich-savouriness. The palate is incredibly subtle and unforced, a wine of natural delicacy where great aged character gives a medium-sweet mid-palate with considerable power. Deliciously sweet jar fruits with lovely tart fruit-skin pucker release softly and gently into a round but nimble finish ... wood-alcohol developmental characters break and radiate to all points, releasing and fading into a delicate swoosh of saline-acid freshness, directional, beautifully balanced.