1995 Leacock's Vintage Tinta Negra Doce

Leacock’s Vntage Tinta Negra 1995 is a single harvest Madeira. This wine was aged for years in seasoned American oak casks in the traditional ‘Canteiro’ system, whereby the casks were gradually transferred from the top floors of the lodge, where it is naturally warmer, to the middle floors and eventually to the ground floor where it is cooler. The wine was regularly racked and when it reached the desired stage of maturity it was bottled.

Negramoll was thought to be a native variety of the Canaries and Madeira (under the name Tinta Negra Mole), where it was already widespread in the 19th century. However, recent DNA studies have shown that Negramoll is identical to Mollar, an old variety from Andalucia, possibly from Cadiz where it was first mentioned in 1787. It is therefore likely that this variety was introduced from Andalucia to the Canaries and to Madeira in or before the 18th century. Here it was given the name Negramoll or (Tinta) Negra Mole (officially Tinta Negra since 2000), based on the old Andalusian synonym of Mollar Negro.