Blandy's 10 Year Old Bual 500ml

Good Madeira wine can be quite hard to find. They just don't make that much of the stuff, unfortunately. Take the forgotten Madeiran noble grape Bastardo, how much do you reckon the whole island produced in 2010? It's pretty low, what you reckon 2000 bottles? 1500 bottles? Nope, 4.5 litres... 4.5 litres! So, if someone tries to sell you a case of 2010 Bastardo you can be confident they're trying to rip you off. Thankfully there's a bit more Boal, so we can all get our hands on this delicious medium-sweet wine with notes of raisined fruit, butterscotch and vanilla. That being said, there are only 133 acres Boal plantings on the whole island, that's like a medium sized Bordeaux grower, so if you find any good quality Madeira, we recommend you get it home as fast as possible!

The Blandy family is unique in being the only family of all the original founders of the Madeira wine trade to still own and manage their own original wine company. Throughout its long history on the island, the family has played a leading role in the development of Madeira wine and members of the family continue to live on Madeira, maintaining a tradition that goes back to 1811, two centuries of fine wine production. John Blandy, the founder of Blandy's arrived in Madeira in 1808. In 1811, he founded his own business as a wine shipper and general trader, with brothers Thomas and George and started to set the foundation for the family and the island itself with the production of the most famous and unique win in the world - Madeira wine. The company soon started exporting wine to the four corners of the world and to places as far as Russia, Northern Europe, Antilles and North America. John Blandy passed away at the age of 72 but his son Charles continued the business. Blandy's Madeira is a family owned business with over 200 years of experience in producing the finest quality Madeira wines. In 1925, Blandy's decided to join the Madeira wine association, a group of wine companies formed together to maximise global exposure. In 1989, to further expand the global market they formed a partnership with the Symingtons of Oporto of which continues today. In 2002, they then launched a completely new style of Madeira. The wine is different to anything that has been produced before and contains two noble grape varieties. Today, Michael and Chris Blandy, members of the 6th and 7th generations, continue to work in the company which is run by Chris and is the world's leading producer of premium quality Madeira wine.