B.A. Kassab, Boal Madeira 1840
Madeira, Portugal 1840 (750mL)
Regular price$2,800.00
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B.A. Kassab, Boal Madeira 1840
Over the last few decades, three letters have caused absolute delirium in fine and rare wine auctions. It’s not DRC, either. What I’m talking about are the wildly sought after and prehistoric wine gems of BAK, or Braheem Kassab, a deceased Syrian merchant who collected Madeiras dating back to 1715. Every once in a blue moon, a few bottles are released from the family’s cellar, fiercely bid for, and subsequently delivered to the world’s most elite, hardcore collectors. Two days ago, we were hit with a late-night email and had 24 hours to respond if we wanted first dibs on a count-on-two-hands microscopic release. We nearly had a heart attack upon seeing the label.
Aside from the few people who unearthed today’s staggering antique, not one living soul has ever seen or tasted today’s 1840 Boal Madeira. No, your eyes are not deceiving you: This wine is indeed 180 years in the making. In other words, the United States was flying a 26-star flag when the grapes for today’s wine were harvested. After spending 110+ years in old casks, only 400 bottles were produced back in the 1950s. Today, only four dozen remain, and we were allowed a quarter of that. We, of course, know this wine is unobtainable for most (including us!) but when you’re given a legendary opportunity to showcase one of the rarest unicorn wines on the planet, an emphatic “yes” is the only answer.
Aside from the few people who unearthed today’s staggering antique, not one living soul has ever seen or tasted today’s 1840 Boal Madeira. No, your eyes are not deceiving you: This wine is indeed 180 years in the making. In other words, the United States was flying a 26-star flag when the grapes for today’s wine were harvested. After spending 110+ years in old casks, only 400 bottles were produced back in the 1950s. Today, only four dozen remain, and we were allowed a quarter of that. We, of course, know this wine is unobtainable for most (including us!) but when you’re given a legendary opportunity to showcase one of the rarest unicorn wines on the planet, an emphatic “yes” is the only answer.
[*PLEASE NOTE: This wine is being specially air-shipped from Madeira and will be arriving in our warehouse at the end of March.]
If the label itself isn’t enough to mesmerize, the story behind it certainly will. A textile merchant by trade, Syrian born (early 1890s) Braheem Kassab was a world-traveler by an early age: upon leaving his home country, he ended up settling in the exotic island of Maderia after a long stint in New York City. Sometime in the 1930s, he loaned a local bank $4,000 in an attempt to keep them afloat, but bankruptcy and subsequent collapse soon followed. As part of Kassab’s collateral, the bank bestowed on him a stock of old Madeira wines. Today’s wine was part of that original transaction. His entire rarefied collection then remained untouched until his passing in 1980.
From there, his nephew assumed control of these vinous antiques where they rested unscathed in his family’s cellar. Since Kassab’s passing, these ancient Madeiras have slowly been released to premier auction houses and become the ultimate white whales in the process. Most notably, a Terrantez from the year 1715 (sold at auction for ~$20,000), currently believed to be the oldest bottle of Madeira in existence. So, today’s once-in-a-lifetime 1840 Madeira starts making sense, especially when you consider that d’Yquem of this age and provenance sells for tens of thousands of dollars, specifically $40,425 for the 1847.
If you need it, here’s a quick refresher on Madeira, otherwise, scroll down to the final two paragraphs. At its core, this is a fortified wine (like Port, Sherry, Marsala) from the Portuguese island far off Morocco’s coast. The concept for Madeira started centuries ago when international trading ships would stop on the island for a quick respite and subsequently pick up a load of Madeira’s still, unfortified wine. These barrels would sit in the cargo hold, acting as both a ballast for the ship and thirst-quencher for the mariners. Long voyages heated the wines, especially across the equator, and sailors soon discovered they preferred the taste. So, they started sending boats around the world—sometimes twice—and began labeling them as vinhos da roda or ‘round-trip wines.’ Later on, in the mid-1700s, winemakers began realizing that acetobacter (the bacteria which turns wine into vinegar) couldn’t survive after a certain alcoholic threshold, so they began fortifying their wines with cane sugar distillate.
In recent history, two methods are used to replicate the old “round-trip” heating and oxidation process, known as “maderization”: estufagem and canteiro. The former is the quicker and cheaper method, where wines are heated to around 120 degrees Fahrenheit for several months in stainless steel vats. Only the finest labels, like today’s, are made via the canteiro process, which requires cask aging for many years in lodge attics or outside with direct sun exposure, during which time the casks “breathe” and the wines undergo slow, controlled oxidation.
Today’s 1840 is made entirely of the Boal grape from that year. It spent over a century in cask before it was bottled, hand-stenciled, and embossed with the now-famous “BAK” initials on the wax seal in the early 1950s. Each bottle is hand-stenciled and numbered. Since that time, this micro-lot has remained untouched—except for a recorking—in the family’s cellar.
Only a literal handful of people will be able to experience today’s extraordinary piece of history. It’s so painfully rare and limited, even we couldn’t taste it. However, this has been vetted by two Masters of Wine (MW) and the former head of Sotheby’s wine department. They conducted a small tasting and four vintages—today’s 1840 among them—were deemed the finest quality. Today’s wine was most recently tasted by the importer and MW legend Jasper Morris in November of 2019, both of which noted that it was “big, rounded, rich [with a] great long finish and a beautiful balance of oak and spice.] They also noted that great, century-plus-year-old Madeira “requires some three days opening before the true character of the wine emerges,” and that “they can be kept for months or years once opened.” This needs no pairing, just the right environment: Savor every drop in an intimate setting, with your closest friends and family, and count yourself one of the lucky few to experience such a rich, unbelievably rare piece of 180-year-old history.
