Madeira of the week 4: 1950 Barbeito Terrantez

1950 Barbeito Terrantez;
Deep amber, yellow rim. Intense nose, complex, nuts, dried fruits, some orange marmalade. High acidity, intense palate, layered, extremely long. 93

From Alex Lidells book on Madeira; 'Terrantez, which has a black variant Terrantez Tinto, is first recorded in Madeira in the eighteenth century. We know howevere, that it was widely cultivated at Lamego in the Douro region of the mainland Portugal as early as 1531, so it may well have arrived in Madeira earlier. The grapes are sweet and the sugar content fairly high. Terrantez all but died out during the phylloxera blight. In 1921 Silva and Meneses report that it is 'cultivated on Porto Santo (neighbouring island) but appears to be extinct or almost extinct on Madeira'. Happily it is still with us and appears, if the increasing number of more recent vintages to be found is any guide, to be gaining ground'.

The problem with Terrantez is that it does not graft well on American rootstocks, so phylloxera is a constant threat. By taste it's somewhat fuller and more intense than Verdelho, acidity seems higher, but not as sweet as Boal. It normally falls somewhere between these two in style. Arturo de Barros e Sousa (ABSL) on the other hand makes a very dry Terrantez style, which is almost peaty on the nose, and Artur Olim (one of the owners of ABSL) call it the Whisky of Madeira.