Madeira Wine: History of Madeira, Port of Funchal, & the Madeira Island Region

Madeira, named after the island it is made on, is like no other wine in the world. Perhaps no greater dedication has gone into the making of a fine wine, than that which has gone into the making of Madeira. Its success owes a lot to the primitive shipping conditions of the seventeenth century.

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To reach the New World, the wines passed through the tropics. The baking it received in the blazing tropical sun, gave an otherwise light and acidic wine, a softness, depth of flavor, and a pleasant burnt quality. It was reasoned, if one crossing of the equator was good for the wine, two had to be better.  By the late 1700's, orders were given to put pipes of Madeira in the hold of ships as ballast, and send them on round trip voyages to all parts of the world. A rather unique way to mature wine. The wine became known as vinho da roda or wine of the round voyage.

Why these wines, exposed to constant rocking, extreme heat, and the barrels often found soaking in bilge water, were not ruined, is a mystery.

Pronunciation Guide

Boal [boh-ahl]
Estufa [esh-TOO-fah]
Lagar [la-GAR]
Madeira [muh-DEH-rah]
Malmsey [MAH'm-zee]
Malvasia [mal-vah-ZEE-ah]
Sercial [sair-s'yahl]
Verdelho [vair-DAY'l-yo]

The History of Madeira

The island of Madeira sat uninhabited in the middle of the North Atlantic until a certain Portuguese explorer, Gonslaves Zarco, was blown off course by a violent storm in 1418 while exploring the coast of West Africa. He found sanctuary on a tiny island he called Porto Santo. While there he saw southwest of Porto Santo, dark clouds on the horizon described as "vapors rising from the mouth of hell." Knowing it must be a substantial island, he set off for the clouds and found beneath them a beautiful garden island. It was so covered with trees that he named it "wood" or in Portuguese, "madeira."

Zarco was sponsored by the third son of King João I, Prince Henry the Navigator. Though he could not be called a practicing mariner himself, Henry was the remarkable prince who was to set in motion the great age of discovery. As soon as Zarco's report got back to Prince Henry, he began at once its colonization. The dense forest were felled and burned – the fires were said to have burned for seven years – and a great deal of the land was brought under cultivation. Infante D. Henrique is credited with the introduction of sugar cane from Sicily in 1452, and in 1453, the sweet Malvasia grapes from Cyprus or Crete. Until now the Genoese and the Venetians had a virtual monopoly on sugar and sweet wines. Henrique wanted to change that. Sugar became the great cash crop. Madeira produced so much sugar that the price for sugar in Europe was halved. By the end of the 1400's, Madeira was the world's greatest producer of sugar. Madeira was flourishing as a Portuguese colony.