|
Madeira is a Portuguese-owned archipelago which lies in the Atlantic Ocean 600 miles (970km) south-west of Lisbon, and marginally closer to Casablanca on the Moroccan coast of North Africa.
The island’s name is probably more often associated with the Madeira wine which is made there than the island itself. England’s Madeira sponge cake is named not because it originated on the island, but because it was traditionally served with Madeira wine rather than tea. Madeira is the Portuguese word for ‘wood’, and dates back many centuries to the times when the island was covered in rainforest. The forests were burned by the island's early settlers to create space for farms and, eventually, vineyards.
Madeira is an unlikely home for one of the world’s most famous, historic wines. It is small (less than 35 miles/56km across at the widest point), remote, mountainous and has a subtropical/Mediterranean climate which presents many viticultural issues including high heat, humidity and rainfall. The reasons for the island’s success as a wine region lie mostly in the pages of naval history between 1700 and 1900, when economic and military exploration was at its peak. Britain, Holland, France, Spain and Portugal were at the helm at this time, and such treasures as the East Indies and the Americas were their prize. The Madeira islands provided a convenient stopover and provisioning spot for voyages across the Atlantic or down the west coast of Africa, and were frequented by ships of many nationalities.
The original wine made on Madeira proved unable to survive long, hot voyages: the solution was to fortify it with spirit derived either from grapes or cane sugar. As global exploration, trading and empire building became more common, more ships required Madeira’s wine for their holds. Curiously, the baked, oxidized character the wine developed while pitching and rolling in the subtropical heat was seen as a benefit rather than a fault. Unlikely as it may seem now, sea voyages were later undertaken for the sole purpose of achieving this character, a practice which continued into the early 20th century. The wine aged on these journeys became known as vinho do roda ('wine of the round trip') and was more highly prized than vinho canterio, which was aged 'artificially' on the island. The practice of deliberately oxidizing wine over an extended period is still known as madeirization in reference to this; examples of other madeirized wines are Banyuls and the vin jaune ('yellow wine') of Jura's Chateau Chalon.
Modern madeira winemaking employs the Estufagem method. Estufagem means 'stove', 'kiln', 'greenhouse' or 'incubator' depending on the context, but the common factor is clear: deliberate heat. The method involves heating the wine to replicate the effects of a subtropical sea voyage. The heating takes place either in a cuba de calor ('heat box') for the cheapest, mass-produced wines, or an armazem de calor (a sauna-like room where the wines are aged in wooden barrels) for the more expensive versions. The finest, most expensive madeira is stored in wooden barrels perched on trestle-like canteiros, where it is left in the tropical sunshine for anything between 20 and 100 years.
The vines used to make madeira have changed over the years, most notably after the devastation brought to the island’s vineyards from the Americas in the form of powdery mildew and phylloxera. Ironically, the popularity of Madeira’s remote, strategic location was also the reason why vine pests and diseases arrived so rapidly from the colonies. Today Tinta Negra Mole is easily the dominant grape variety used in madeira wine production. Its name means ‘black soft’, quite the opposite to Italy's Negroamaro, and perhaps derives from the belief that the variety is a crossing of ‘black’ Grenache and ‘soft’ Pinot Noir.
The original preferred varieties were Verdelho, Sercial, Terrantez (now officially renamed as Folgasao), Bual and Malvasia. The wines were often produced as varietals and labeled with the name of their respective grape variety. The word Malvasia was eventually corrupted to the English word Malmsey, and became a by-word for madeira wines. Terrantez almost became extinct on the island, although it, along with the more prestigious varieties, is now making a gradual comeback. Much madeira is blended from a combination of Tinta Negra Mole and various other hybrids brought to the island as a remedy to the phylloxera epidemic, but the single-variety wines attract the most interest and can command higher prices.
Madeira wines come in various sweetness levels, from seco (dry) and meio seco (medium dry) to meio doce (medium sweet) and doce (sweet). Those wines labeled as finest are, illogically, those aged for the shortest amount of time (three years is the required minimum) and are usually put to culinary uses. The mentions reserve, special reserve and extra reserve denote five, ten and 15 years of ageing respectively, while colheita ('harvest') is used to describe a wine from a single vintage. Vintage is the most expensive form of madeira, and must be from a single vintage and aged for more than 20 years prior to commercial release. Rainwater Madeira is a lighter style, popular in the United States and typically made from Tinta Negra Mole.
All fortified madeira is now produced under the Madeira DOC, while the island’s table wines are sold under the VR (Vinho Regional) title Terras Madeirenses.
|
