Hello, this is Dave, old (really old) friend of Winston's. I spent a week in Madeira before meeting up with Winston and Bruce in the French Riviera. Madeira is a fascinating and beautiful island about 1000 miles south of Lisbon and 500 miles West of Africa, a volcanic island that is blessed with a mild climate and plenty of rain. It is extremely mountainous, and over the centuries the people have built incredible terracing into the steep hillsides in order to farm it. A certain Captain Zarco claimed the island for Portugal in 1420, and immediately set fire to it to clear off the native forest. This fire burnt for 7 years. I renamed the captain "Zippo Zarco" . After the fires died down, the immigrants planted sugar cane at first, then later grapes, banana and other fruit.
Madeira is now mostly famous for the fortified Madeira wine, which like Sherry and Port can be aged for many years. They sell about 5 million bottles a year of Madeira, so it is big business. The grapes used are primarily tinta negra mole, but Madeira can also be made from sercial, verdelho, bual, and malmsey grapes originating from respectively Germany, Spain/Portigal, Burgundy, and Crete. It ranges from "dry" to "sweet", but it is all too sweet for me. Some of the grapes get made into table wines, and I must say they are very acceptable! I also tried some Portuguese wines that were very good value, such as Joao Pires branco made from Muscatel grapes, and which reminded me of the Alsatian wines. A nice red from the north end of the island I tasted was a Quinta do Moledo '04 verdelho reserva. aged in French oak, it was nicely balanced, good fruit taste with a smooth finish. The label said only 2100 bottles were made. If I recall, it was only about $20. Wines from the Douro region of Portugal can be very nice too. These are a blend of several grapes. In general I found the wines very good value; I suspect Portugal is not so well known for wines as other countries, and thus cannot charge premium prices. I will make a point when I get home to ferret out some more Portuguese wines.
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