‘Secrets’ from H.M.Borges

There was an air of secrecy about the tasting that I had with Helena Borges in November last year. She was keen to show me her latest wines, some of which had not yet been released for sale. So I was sworn to secrecy. All apart form one of the wines below have now been bottled and are on the market so I feel that I able to write them up both for the new edition of my book on Madeira as well as for this website. I always look forward to my tastings at H.M.Borges both because of the welcoming reception that I get from Helena as well as the magnificence of some of the wines, especially the older blends. This tasting was no exception.

H.M. Borges ‘Old Reserve’ 10 Year Old Sercial ****

Pale to mid-amber with a lovely green tinge to the rim; gently lifted on the nose with a leafy character, off-dry (58 g/l residual sugar) with a clean, savoury flavour mid-palate followed up by fresh, bracing acidity (7.3 g/l total acidity). Gentle overall and not at all punishing. 17.5

H.M. Borges, 2005 Colheita Tinta Negra ***/****

A wine bottled in 2019: red-tinged pale mahogany colour; gentle perfumed raisiny aromas without being pungent; lovely raisiny fruit, intensely sweet (113 g/l residual sugar), suave and still very fresh with lovely astringency and piquancy to offset the richness on the finish. 16.5

H.M. Borges 2005 Boal ****

Bottled in 2018: pale mahogany in colour with a lovely open butterscotch character on the nose and on the palate, sweet but not intensely so (87 g/l residual sugar) and wonderfully long and fresh. Seemingly drier on the finish. 17

H.M.Borges 1993 Verdelho ****

Grapes from the Araújo family in Jardim da Serra, bottled in 2017: pale amber-mahogany; restrained on the nose with an underlying savoury character with a touch of smoky-casky complexity. Lovely leafy-green fruit on the palate, so characteristic of Verdelho, steely clean with racy acidity cutting through (8.9 g/l total acidity), fresh and focused on the finish with just a touch of salgadinho salinity. 1012 bottles in total. 18

H. M. Borges 30 Year Old Malvasia ****

Mid-deed red tinged mahogany with a lovely lifted nose, deep and pungent; a lovely butterscotch character with a touch of torrefaction (dark chocolate and roasted coffee) underlying; rich (139 g/l residual sugar), tangy acidity (9.1 g/l total acidity) and satisfying all the way to the finish. Quite profound. 18

H.M.Borges 50 Year Old Malvasia *****

A wine tasted ‘blind’ from cask, to be bottled in 2022, this is the first 50 Year Old Wine from Borges: deep red-tinged mahogany; distinctly high-toned on the nose, casky complexity too but somehow in a rather good way; intensely rich and concentrated in style (165 g/l residual sugar), butterscotch, crystalised fruits and a touch of molasses, offset by a powerful streak of acidity (11.7 g/l total acidity) leading to a complex, powerful finish. Utterly glorious. 19

H.M. Borges 1986 Boal ****

This was still a ‘secret’ when I tasted it having been bottled in October 2021: mid-deep amber mahogany hues; open, perfumed and playful, almost aromatic with a touch of beef tea and vanilla complexity on the nose; savoury, perhaps just a touch woody on the palate, medium rich and mid-weight (103 g/l residual sugar) with orange zest and a touch of salinity towards the finish. Showing great finesse. Just 500 bottles. 18