Frasqueiras Pereira D’Oliveiras Boal Medium Sweet (bottled 2013, 26yo) 1987

Rich, raisined fruits are figgy with touches of maraschino and fat walnuts in a jam-packed, luscious nose with toast and carob. It's grapey and succulent, but there's lift and freshness, too - the smell of first rain after a long dry spell over fine old balsamic timber complexity. The twin-tracked sweetness is beautifully rounded through two-thirds of the palate, then planes out and becomes lighter, drier and more lingering. Nuts and dates slide along a praline slick to a long, salt-braced drying finish.