Blandy’s Terrantez 1980 was aged for 36 years in seasoned American oak casks in the traditional ‘Canteiro’ system, whereby the wine is gently heated by warm air in the lofts of the family’s south-facing lodge in Funchal. The wine moved to the warmest top floor of the Blandy’s Wine Lodge, the “Sotão de Amendoa”, in 1981, where it remained for 1 year. It then passed down to the middle floor and eventually to the ground floor in 1987, where it remained until being bottled in 2016.
The art of finding the right balance between concentration and the freshness of the wine lies in the winemaker’s decision when to transfer the wine to the lower, cooler north-facing floors of the lodge.
Reviews
This is rich, with racy cut driving the clove, dark tea, bitter orange, date, walnut and hazelnut aromas and flavors. Ends on a note of buckwheat honey, staying dry.
The variety has an uncanny ability to produce wines that are both voluptuous and brisk, this one rich with caramel, maple syrup, lemon meringue and beach rose scents, salty with a sandy abrasion to the light tannins and completely fresh as it closes in on 40 years of age, with notes of lime adding tension.