About Tinta Negra

Formerly known as Tinta Negra Mole, Tinta Negra is by far the most widely planted grape on the island, accounting for more than 85% of the total hectares planted (485 ha). Long-prized by growers for its generous yields and adaptability to a wide array of growing conditions, and by winemakers for its chameleon-like expression, producing wines ranging from seco to doce. It forms the basis of all entry-level madeiras which undergo estufagem, but in recent decades winemakers have sought to explore and elevate this ‘workhorse grape’, and it was included in ‘Recommended Varieties’ (castas recomendadas) in 2015, for the first time permitting its name to appear on madeira labels. H&H (with several other producers) has been in the vanguard of its reassessment, producing three colheitas and the island’s first 50-Year Tinta Negra.

Tasting Notes

The H&H Tinta Negra Single Harvest 1997 is a colheita bottling: an early-bottled vintage wine. (H&H prefer to use the term "Single Harvest," a rough translation of "Colheita.") A distinctive and even notorious madeira, the 1997 underwent an unusual élevage: some of the blend aging in new Iberian and American oak barrels destined for a Scotch whisky distillery. Made in the "Fine Rich" style—akin to a rich Boal or light Malmsey—it is the wood influence that distinguishes this edition: redolent of golden, vanilla-tinged citrus fruits, smoke and whisky-barrel oak tones—fascinating as it is unique.

Pairing Recommendations

With aged farmhouse cheeses and roasted nuts, or for dessert with crème caramel/brûlée, and all manner of chocolate- or coffee-based cakes. As a digestif: solo, or with a fuller-bodied cigar.

keeps indefinitely
(50-65ºF)

keeps indefinitely
(55-64ºF)

2 oz. pour
(59-64ºF)

About Henriques & Henriques

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It might be said that the history of Henriques & Henriques is the history of Madeira itself. Legend has it that Infante Dom Henriques planted the island’s first vines in 1425. These vines gave fruit to one of the “first families of Madeira” and in the process sunk deep roots which 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 island, replanted in 1995.

Against the tides of urban development, H&H have been in 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 always composed of stocks well in excess of the statement requirement (e.g., 15-year).

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 one of these is, quite literally, to “drink history” itself, as well as to share in the accumulated wisdom—of family, family-owned vineyards and old stocks—that continue to define Henriques & Henriques today. Full details

About Madeira DOC

Viticulture/Vinification