The drink comes in an elegant, slender 50cl bottle. The colour of the liquid is somewhere between sunset yellow and burnt orange. The nose oozes pungent christmas cake, booze-soaked raisins and those sugared pecan nuts available at christmas markets. Strong, syrupy and sappy! Powerful dried fruits - figs, apricots and currants - pop up first and slink into a long finish with lingering nut and caramel notes, somewhat similar to how I imagine a hazelnut creme brulee could be. The full, round flavours of dried fruit are counteracted by a bright herbal acidity all the way through attributed in no small part the use of Bual. One of the 4 noble white grapes commonly used for Madeira (which is always single-varietal from what I can tell) the bual grape is considered a medium-sweet (meio-dolce) variety sitting in between Verdelho (drier) and Malmsey (richer). In fact, when I get a spare £25 I plan to compare this Bual to a 15 year old Malmsey to discover exactly how much more sweetness and body that variety contributes. No doubt 15 years of barrel-ageing also aids this wine's great depth of flavour and sap-like herbal notes. The nutty character and fine balance of dry and sweet also makes this wine a good antidote, of sorts, to the sometimes overbearing sweetness of ruby port.
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