Made on the Portuguese Madeira Islands off the coast of Africa, Madeira is a fortified wine. Madeira is made in a range of types, from dry wines that are perfect as an apéritif to sweet wines that are typically served with dessert. For use in cooking, less expensive varieties are frequently flavoured with salt and pepper; however, they should not be drunk as a beverage.
The history of winemaking on the Madeira islands dates back to the end of the 15th century, during the Age of Exploration when Madeira was a common port of call for ships sailing to the East Indies or the New World. The addition of neutral grape spirits kept the wine from becoming bad. The wines would be subjected to intense heat and movement throughout the lengthy sea trips, which altered the wine’s flavour. The Madeira wine producers found this out when an unsold shipment of wine made a round-trip return to the islands.
Madeira is renowned now for its distinctive winemaking method, which entails oxidising the wine through ageing and heat. The Canteiro method (simply used the heat of the sun to warm up the barrels) is used to manufacture the older blends, such as Colheitas (rules have required a minimum of six years in neutral cask, since the category was created in the early-mid-1990s) and Frasqueiras (Frasqueira Madeira is a rare, high-quality style meant to age for a long time, and must be aged a minimum of twenty years in cask before release), while artificial heat is used to speed up the ageing process for the younger blends, which are three and five years old. These wines keep incredibly well in bottles due to the ageing process; those made using the Canteiro method can endure for decades or even centuries after being opened. Wines that have spent decades in barrels are frequently taken out and kept in demijohns, where they can be preserved eternally without deterioration.
The terms “Madeira” and “Madera” are also applied to some wines made in small amounts in Crimea, California, and Texas; however, most nations follow EU PDO standards and restrict the use of the terms Madeira or Madère to wines that originate from the Madeira Islands.
The growth and prosperity of Madeira throughout its history (15th–18th centuries)
Due to its position, Madeira was a great place to stop during travels to the East Indies.
The history of Madeira’s wine industry begins during the Age of Exploration, a time when ships frequently stopped at Madeira on their way to the East Indies. Records from the 16th century show that the island had a thriving wine business at the time, which provided the ships with wine for the lengthy sea crossings. The early Madeira examples were often undefended and spoiled before they could be used. But, to stabilise the wine by increasing its alcohol level, a tiny amount of distilled alcohol manufactured from cane sugar was added, following the model of Port (the present method of fortification with brandy did not become prevalent until the 18th century).
Producers of Madeira noticed that the wine transformed upon its return to the island from the tremendous heat in the ship’s holds. Customers were discovered to enjoy this type of wine’s flavour, and Madeira wines labelled as vinho da roda (round-trip wines) quickly gained popularity. Producers in Madeira discovered that ageing wine over lengthy sea trips was very expensive, so they started to devise techniques on the island to create the same heated and aged style. To allow the heat of the island sun to mature the wine, they started holding the wines on trestles at the winery or in unique spaces called estufas.
Important English merchants landed on the island as a result of the growing number of economic treaties with England, such as the Marriage Treaty in 1662, and eventually came to dominate the island’s growing wine trade. Beginning in the seventeenth century, English traders established themselves at Funchal, combining the markets of the West Indies, North America, and England. Distinguished labels comprise Cossart and Gordon, established in 1745, and Blandy’s, established in 1811.
Madeira’s “golden age” was the seventeenth century. The popularity of the wine spread to Russia, Great Britain, and Northern Africa from the American colonies and to Brazil in the New World. Particularly ardent consumers, the American colonies consumed up to 95% of the island’s annual wine production.
History of early America (17th–18th centuries)
A young guy is shown in a full-length portrait sitting at a table; he is dressed in a tastefully made dark suit, knee breeches with white stockings, and an English gentleman’s wig. He is using his right hand to grasp a quill pen while using his left to turn the pages of a huge book.
Boston riots were sparked by John Hancock’s boat seizure after the dumping of a batch of twenty-five Madeira pipes.
In the annals of American history, Madeira played a pivotal role. The thirteen colonies lacked wine-quality grapes, therefore imports were required, with a particular emphasis on Madeira. The British seizure of John Hancock’s sloop Liberty on May 9, 1768, was one of the significant events leading up to the American Revolution, in which Madeira was instrumental. After Hancock unloaded a shipment of 25 pipes (3,150 US gallons (11,900 L)) of Madeira, his yacht was impounded, and a disagreement over import duties surfaced. There were riots in Boston as a result of the seizing of Liberty.
Thomas Jefferson loved Madeira, and the Declaration of Independence was toasted with it. It is also said that Madeira’s attributes were valued by John Adams, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin. Benjamin Franklin described the wine in his book. Once, when serving as a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress, Adams wrote to his wife Abigail about the large amounts of Madeira he had drank. In 1797, visiting Captain James Sever christened the USS Constitution with a bottle of Madeira. Madeira was likewise regarded as a fine wine by Chief Justice John Marshall and his colleagues on the first American Supreme Court. In the early nineteenth century, Madeira and walnuts were frequently served together as the final course at dinner gatherings in Washington.
Modern times (1900s to current)
The success of the industry came to an end in the mid-19th century. First, powdery mildew was discovered in 1851, which led to a three-year period of drastically decreased productivity. The phylloxera pandemic that had ravaged France and other European wine areas extended to the island just as the sector was beginning to recover thanks to the application of the Bordeaux combination fungicide, which is based on copper. The majority of the island’s vineyards had been removed by the end of the 19th century, and many of them had been replaced with sugar cane fields. When vineyards did replant, most of them used hybrid grape varieties or American vine varieties like Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, and Vitis rupestris instead of the Vitis vinifera varieties that had been produced in the past.
Sales began to gradually pick up steam around the turn of the 20th century, but the Russian Civil War and American Prohibition, which shut down two of Madeira’s largest markets, rocked the sector once more. Madeira, an island located squarely between the trade winds between Europe and America, was no longer a necessary stop for ships when Prohibition was repealed because of advancements in maritime technology. The Forgotten Island Wine was the moniker given to the wine. Similar to Marsala, Madeira witnessed a decline in sales and reputation for the remainder of the 20th century as the island began to be known mostly for its inferior “cooking wine”.
Many of the Madeira brand names were owned by the Madeira Wine Company, which was invested in by the Portuguese Symington family in 1988. They requested that Bartholomew Broadbent reintroduce Madeira and establish a market for it in America. In 1989, he accomplished this, bringing Madeira back to life.
Some growers began to refocus on quality towards the end of the 20th century, pulling out American and hybrid vines and replacing them with Sercial, Verdelho, Bual, and Malvasia, the so-called “noble grape” varietals. The “workhorse” Tinta Negra Mole, now officially plain Tinta Negra, and Complexa types are still around and widely used, but in 1979 hybrid grapes were outlawed from being used to make wine. Currently, France (where it is only used for cooking, with salt and pepper added before bottling), Germany, and the Benelux nations make up the majority of Madeira’s markets; new markets are expanding in Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Viticulture
Geographical conditions and climate
Growing vineyards in the tropical climate close to Santana, Madeira, among different cultures.
The climate of the island of Madeira is oceanic with some tropical influences. With frequent heavy rains and a typical temperature of 19 °C, botrytis rot and other fungal grape diseases pose a continual threat to wine production. In order to counter these dangers, Madeira vineyards are frequently planted on low trellises called latadas, which elevate the vine canopy above the ground in a manner akin to that of the Portuguese Vinho Verde region. Because the island’s steep volcanic geology makes cultivation challenging, vineyards are located on artificial terraces built of red and brown basaltic bedrock.
The Douro terraces that enable the manufacture of Port wine bear a striking resemblance to these terraces, also called poios. Growing wine grapes is an expensive endeavour on the island because it is nearly impossible to use automated harvesting and vineyard equipment. In the past, numerous vineyards have been demolished for monetary tourism developments or replaced with goods like bananas for financial gain. There’s been some replanting on the island, but overall, the tourism industry is thought to be more profitable than wine production. About 2,100 grape producers cultivate most of the grapes, with vines planted on tiny pieces of land that provide them with revenue from a range of intercropped crops.
Varieties of grapes
The Malvasia grape varietal is often referred to as Malmsey or Malvazia.
The red grape Negra Mole is used to generate about 85% of Madeira. From sweetest to driest, the four main white grape varietals used to produce Madeira are Malvasia, Bual, Verdelho, and Sercial. As we’ll talk about shortly, these kinds also give names to Madeira labels. Terrantez, Bastardo, and Moscatel types are occasionally seen, but due to phylloxera and oidium, these are becoming less common on the island. Many wines were “mislabelled” as containing one of these noble grape types following the phylloxera outbreak; these reinterpretations of “wine styles” instead of actual varietal names led to widespread confusion. The workhorse varieties on the island since the epidemic are Tinta Negra (also known as Negra Mole) and Complexa, which may be found in varied quantities in many mixes and vintage wines. Red grape varieties include Tinta Negra, Complexa, and Bastardo.
The varietals Listrão (Palomino Fino) and Caracol are grown only on the nearby island of Porto Santo, which is also allowed by the appellation rule to supply grapes for Madeira wine. A few companies, including Blandy’s and Artur de Barros e Sousa, used to produce Listrão Madeira. The latter was the last to discontinue production of the variety when they closed their doors in 2013. However, in 2020, Madeira Vintners, which was founded in the same year, resumed production of the wine and released a 5-year-old Listrão Reserve Madeira. For the first time in more than a century, Madeira Vintners transformed the obscure Caracol grape—thought to be exclusive to Porto Santo—into fortified Madeira. This marked the introduction of a new grape variety that could produce a superior single-varietal Madeira wine. As of 2023, the company’s inventories are still maturing and there isn’t any wine available.
The requirement that 85% of the grapes in the wine be of the variety listed on the label has been implemented by the European Union through new regulations. Wines produced during the late 20th century and before the late 19th century (pre-phylloxera) therefore follow this guideline. For the majority of the 20th century, many “varietally labelled” Madeiras did not. The majority of modern Madeiras made from Negra Mole do not have a varietal label.
Other cultivars planted on the island include Arnsburger, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the American hybrids Cunningham and Jacquet, even though they are not allowed to be produced in Madeira legally.
Making Wine
A dry Madeira is produced with the grape Sercial.
Like most wines, Madeira’s first fermentation occurs in either oak or stainless steel barrels after the grapes are picked, crushed, and pressed. To counterbalance the sweetness of the wine, the grape varieties Bual and Malvasia, which are meant to be used in sweeter wines, are frequently fermented on their skins. Sercial, Verdelho, and Negra Mole are used to make dryer wines, which are extracted from their skins before fermentation. Neutral grape spirits are added at a later stage to stop the fermentation of the wine, depending on the desired sweetness level.
While Madeira’s characteristic flavour is artificially produced by heating younger wines (usually between 3 and 5 years old) during the estufagem ageing process, longer-ageing wines are barrel-aged, utilising just the naturally high temperatures of the barrel storage chambers (see Canteiro method).
Although it’s becoming less common, colourings like caramel colouring have been employed in the past to add some consistency.
The ageing process
Wine barrels ageing in the sun: Madeira wine’s special ageing technique, uses heat and temperature to shield the wine from long sea voyages through tropical regions.
The wines of Madeira are matured at relatively high temperatures, simulating the effects of a lengthy sea voyage through tropical climes, which is what distinguishes the region’s wine production. During the ageing process, the wine is heated in three basic ways. The two procedures are part of the estufagem process, which uses artificial heat to speed up the ageing of the wines. The canteiro process, on the other hand, is reserved for older, more costly wines and uses only the natural heat of the barrel warehouses.
Procedures for estufagem:
Armazém do Calor: This technique, exclusive to the Madeira Wine Company, entails keeping the wine in sizable wooden casks in a specially made space that is heated by pipes or steam-producing tanks, essentially creating a sauna-like environment. This technique, which can take anywhere from six months to more than a year, exposes the wine to heat more gradually. Cuba de Calor: The most popular method for producing inexpensive Madeira involves bulk ageing in low stainless steel or concrete containers that are encircled by pipes or heat coils that permit hot water to circulate inside. The Madeira Wine Institute mandates that the wine be heated to as high as 55 °C for a minimum of 90 days. On the other hand, the Madeira is often heated to about 46 °C.
