Blandy's Colheita Verdelho 2011

Tasted from a 50-cl mini sample. Verdelho grapes from Porto Moniz and Calheta. Aged in the canteiro system, in 650-litre casks at room temperature until bottling. TA 7.5 g/l, VA 0.48 g/l, RS 80 g/l, pH 3.3. 2,400 75-cl bottles. Harvest and winemaker Francisco Albuquerque. One of Blandy's 2024 releases. Smells like a spice souk, and amber – I love how a wine can smell and taste like a colour. This one is as amber as it gets. It even has that amber glow and iridescent swirl, as if shimmering acidity and the slow curl of a midnight cigar were somehow trapped for all time in every molecule. There's more fruit here than there was on the 2010 – every droplet tastes of ripe, just-picked apricots, of quince, of blood oranges. The spices sift through, soughing softly, as if blown in on a gentle, salty sea breeze. Then that cigar on the finish; just lit, fragrant, hinting of orange peel. You can almost lick it off the warm azure blue of a huge midnight sky.