I love Madeira; all of those weird, rancid and off flavours that combine to make a lovely, complete booze experience are a joy. This is a particularly tits bottle.

Madeira Boal Reserva 1968, d'Oliveiras
Quite dark orange, with the weird green rim you only seem to find on Madeira. The nose bursts with brazil and hazelnut tones, with a wonderful toffee apple fruit. This is throbbing with life and it clearly signed an agreement saying it would strive only to provide a lot of pleasure. If I have been unclear allow me to re-iterate: this smells freaking ace. The palate also bursts with life, it has good baked fruit and truly marvellous (and, if I may go on about this, slightly painful) acidity. As with all good bottles of Madeira, how this tastes may not thrill the unenlightened. But I am well aware that both my readers of this site are not only enlightened but in fact serene. This will tickle your imagination, thrill your nose and tantalise your tongue. Madeira is a sadly neglected drink these days, and has been so for too long. When I used to invite good looking students to my room to mark their essays, issue them with papers and generally be a supportive kind of tutor they always seemed scandalised when I offered them a glass of Madeira. Bad thing when social conditioning makes one reject good things simply because Dame Fashion says you must avoid without giving any convincing reason. Surely it is better to be right than fashionable? Madeira was one of the first wines I purchased with my own cash, but even at that tender age I knew about the objective nature of reality and how I was in touch with it. This is excellent.

This is another good bottle in a string of good bottles since the Pinot Noir By Farr; you have no idea how such events cheer me up. If I am honest, I am pretty unwell at the moment. I am about to change medication and this might be difficult for a while. And yet, a few good bottles in select company has provided me with an awfully large amount of jolly points; the wine has added to the experience of people obviously liking me over the past few days and, even though this can sometimes be difficult to deal with, it is really rather nice. Now, a serious sweet wine:

Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos "Betsek" 1999, Royal Tokaji Wine Company
Darker than golden syrup. A lovely nose of botrytic, candied apricots, with a pleasingly earthy character. This is a classy sweet wine. The palate is obviously silky and smooth, and even though it displays classic Tokaji oxidative tones it is still really fruity. As far as it is possible for these sort of wines to display vineyard character, this does. It is very long and bursting with complex fruit/mold/oxidative flavours, which delight and titillate for a pleasing length of time. There is a highly attractive character to this wine. It'll last forever, but why bother? It is great fun now, and you can think about it too, which is never a bad thing.

That Shiraz By Farr was really good, as was the de Courcel. The Leflaive BBM was a transcendent experience. People open these things for me and I open them for them. Maybe I am not so bad. Maybe people are not wrong to like me. Even in the midst of psychosis there are oases of complete loveliness. I hope I can remain out of the bin and continue this hit-rate of great bottles over the next few weeks.

Chilean wine on Elitist Review? Honestly, elitism is my goal (rather than snobbery) so I'll take the best from anywhere, especially when this was a mere fifteen sheets.

EQ Pinot Noir 2006, Matetic Vineyards
It is quite dark. It has a slightly cabbagey, sour fruit nose which is typical of slightly under-baked Pinot. However, there is also a lot of quite nice berry fruit. The palate is a touch hot, and slightly tannic in an over extracted sort of way. But hey, there is fruit there, it is quite lively, we talked about it for... oh... minutes before deciding once again we prefer Tandem. That being said, it is not bad by any stretch of the imagination and I'll happily drink it.

You know, there were no wines of the month last month because I was in hospital. I took an overdose last Wednesday. I didn't do myself any long term damage, and I feel a fool for being so impulsive, but at least now my insomnia is being taken seriously.

Hell's bells, a Moroccan wine on Elitist Review. Mind you, it is made by the gifted winemaker, and all round good fellow, Alain Graillot. Can he really make bad wine? We shall see...

Tandem Syrah 2005, Alain Graillot
It is rather dark. A nose of rich dark fruit that is really quite attractive. Nice ripeness to it, but there is also a hint of greenness. Lawks, this has been pressed until the pips squeak, it is very extracted. However, there is a lot of fruit, and the tannins are ripe enough. OK, there is not much here in the way of complexity, but for an eight note bottle of wine this has a degree of style. I am actually enjoying drinking it. Not for ageing or anything, but to drink as a random bottle of wine you cannot go far wrong.

I have said before that Barbeito colheitas are the cutting edge of Madeira cool and this one demonstrates that admirably. This is made by the traditional 'canteiro' process (it is matured in a warm warehouse rather than being heated artificially) and is not coloured with caramel. The back label tells us this cask was at a cooler edge of the warehouse which supposedly results in a more elegant wine.

Malvasia Colheita Cask 18a 1994, Barbeito
The colour is quite light orange-brown. The nose displays all of the weird aromas of decent Madeira but it has a lightness to it; it is not aggressively rancid or chemical. There is also some candied orange fruit there. The palate is also remarkably light for a Madeira; certainly full of flavour but not thick and heavy. The note on the back label was right, this does seem elegant compared to other Barbeitos I've had. It is very complex and very long. This is very stylish and very satisfying. Cool Madeira!

As an aside, these single cask Barbeito Madeiras occasionally turn up in Fortnum and Mason. My last conversation with the Barbeito agent suggested they'd be getting some new stuff in soon. At less than twenty notes for an imp bottle these are serious wines at bargain prices.

I've just had some more Cask 21C Malvasia Madeira, it is terribly good. Straight out of the fridge it really shows that it can be a refreshing drink thanks to all of that acidity. I like its slightly off, savoury character too. Oddly, there is some fruit as well. I admit it is candied, preserved fruit, but fruit nonetheless. This is Madeira at its coolest and I love it.

This Madeira is the cutting edge of Madeira cool. Not something I often say, I admit. It is aged in barrel using the traditional 'canteiro' process and bottled without the addition of caramel to colour it.

Malvasia Colheita Cask 21C 1992, Vinhos Barbeito
A reasonably dark orange colour. The nose has rancidity and all of those weird, off flavours of cooking and oxidation that Madeira often has, but it also seems lively and not tired. The palate is rich, but has a savoury character to it. It has very good acidity. The balance is great between richness, acidity and cooked characters. This is really lively. It is also really lovely. Madeira is a weird old wine, not something tuned to modern palates, but this is a fine drink and I have enjoyed it greatly. Knackered wine at its finest.

Oremus are owned by Vega Sicilia, so by rights this wine should be so oxidised it would only taste of vinegar. Luckily, Vega have not moved their love of over-oxidised wines to Hungary. 

Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos 1999, Oremus
A heady golden colour. The nose is very ripe and botrytic, but has no sign of oxidation. Amazing! It is largely clean and full of fruit. The palate is very rich and sweet, but the acidity seems in balance. Lots of peaches and cream/apricot jam richness. It is not terribly complex, but tastes lovely. The finish is superb, very long, sweet and fruity. This is a very good, well-balanced sweet wine.