Top 10 Madeira (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides)

% Wine Shop
The rustic-styled shop
has shelves fashioned
from old wine casks. On
sale here is a large selection
of wines by all the
producers in the Madeira
Wine Company under the
labels Blandy’s, Cossart
Gordan, Leacock’s and
Miles. Spirits and Madeira
cakes are also sold.
* Vintage Room
Within the Vintage
Room, precious wines are
stored by date and kept
locked behind bars.
Madeira wines dating
back to 1908 (and costing
€698 a bottle) can be
sampled here. Those who
cannot afford the above
can try moderately priced,
but nevertheless appeal-
( Shopping Arcade
In a sign of the
times, the old cooper’s
yard was recently converted
into a shopping
arcade. However, the
Madeira Wine Company
still employs coopers to
patch and mend 100-yearold
barrels. The coopers
use traditional methods,
mixing new and old oak.
) The “Oldest
Street”
The street that runs up
the eastern side of the
wine lodge dates from
the 1400s, in the early
days of Madeira’s settlement.
Wine barrels were
once dragged across the
cobbles on a sledge going
to and from the harbour.
Wine Museum ^ Framed letters of
appreciation from kings
and queens, emperors,
presidents and prime
ministers – all of them
lovers of good Madeira
wine – line the walls of
the museum at the heart
of the lodge. Also on display
here are leatherbound
ledgers recording
every sale going as far
back as the 18th century.
Max Romer & Tasting Bar
The delightfully sunny
murals of grape-growing
and harvesting that cover
the walls of the tasting
bar on the ground floor
were painted in 1922 by
the German artist Max
Romer (1878–1960).
Madeira Wine
Madeira wine has two
defining characteristics.
First, like sherry and
port, it is “fortified” by
the addition of brandy at
the end of the fermentation
process. Second,
it is heated during production.
The benefits of
heating were discovered
when wines left on
board ship after a round
trip to the equator were
found to have developed
a new depth and
complexity of flavour. In
time, winemakers
worked out how to
recreate the effect by
maturing the wine in
lofts heated by the sun,
without the need for a
sea journey. (See also
p59 on estufagem.)
Madeira’s wine industry was nearly wiped out when the vines were
attacked by mildew in 1851, and by phylloxera (vine louse) in 1872.
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