Malvazia Sweet Colheita (bottled 2016, 16yo) 2000

Aromatic interest is great here, with complex tea smells lifting out of caramelised date richness. There's a waft of herb and grilled bread, nuts and polished timbers all adding significant interest to the sweetness. The palate is rich and lush, perfectly balancing old concentrated pruney sweetness with fresher, grapier, perfumed and lifted sweetness, yet no heaviness or cloying. There's graceful earthiness in the sweetness and the acid outruns the sugar, carrying iodine and nut past the caramel into a fresh, perfumed finish.