Henriques & Henriques 10 Year Boal Madeira

About Henriques & Henriques 10 Year Boal Madeira

Henriques & Henriques 10 Year Boal Madeira shows an interwoven palate of fig marmalade, salted caramel, baking spices, and cigar smoke.

About Henriques & Henriques

It might be said that the history of Henriques & Henriques is the history of Madeira itself. Legend states that Infante Dom Henriques planted the island’s first vines in 1425. These vines gave the fruit to one of the “first families of Madeira” and, in the process, sunk deep roots that Henriques’ descendants and successors continue to draw upon in guiding H&H today.

João Joaquim Gonçalves Henriques founded the firm in 1850 as a partidista, supplying wine to other merchants from extensive Henriques vineyard holdings while continuing to amass significant stocks of old wines in the family cellars. In 1925, Henriques & Henriques began to bottle and export Madeira produced entirely from their own vineyards—an anomaly amongst producers on the island. Today, Henriques & Henriques is led by CEO and winemaker Humberto Jardim, one of Madeira’s great visionaries and ambassadors. The firm continues to source some of its needs from its own vineyards, most notably from a terraced, 10-hectare vineyard at Quinta Grande—the single largest on the island, replanted in 1995.

Against the tides of urban development, H&H has been at the forefront of vineyard planting and preservation of Madeira’s noble varieties: Sercial, Verdelho, Boal, Malvasia, and Terrantez, while simultaneously playing a key role in the reappraisal of the underrated Tinta Negra, recently releasing an unprecedented 50-year expression. Likewise, H&H’s age-statement varietal wines are widely regarded as benchmark articulations: always 100% of the stated varietal (e.g., Verdelho), the blend composed of stocks well over the statement requirement (e.g., 15 years).

Finally, H&H continues to boast an impressive selection of pre-1925 “Garrafeira” (vintage) and Solera bottlings originating in the Henriques family cellars. Without question, the most celebrated of these is the “Heavenly Quartet”—four legendary wines from the late 18th century—that are amongst the most transcendent expressions of Madeira extant today. To taste any of these is, quite literally, to “drink history” itself and share in the accumulated wisdom—of family-owned vineyards and old stocks—that continue to define Henriques & Henriques today.

About Boal

Along with Sercial, Verdelho, and Malvasia, Boal is one of the classic white grapes of Madeira. In its youth, it is the darkest of the classic varieties, ranging from tawny to tortoiseshell in color. Sweeter than Verdelho, yet less so than Malvasia, Boal is meio doce: “medium-sweet,” thought to offer Madeira lovers the ideal combination of elegance and richness. Redolent of dried fruit, barley sugar, crème brûlée, and caramel, its volume is checked by its natural tang of acidity; the finish is surprisingly dry and delineated. Vintage wines tend to grow subtler and more Verdelho-like with extended elevage. There is currently just 15.5 ha under vine on the island.