Madeira Wine Tour (Part 2)
The Drive There \240 The the way to the winery, Suzanne told us everything we needed to know about Madeira wine.
There are two types of Madeira Wine. There is “Wine from Madeira”, which is simply wine made in Madeira, and “Maderian Wine”, which is made in a very special way that wine is made only here. As Suzanne would say, “I need you to understand one thing, this took many, many years.”
Back in the day (15th-16th centuries), the people had settled in to Madeira, building their tall houses with a room on each floor to work with the steep landscape. Kitchens were most often on the bottom floor of the house, which got unbearably hot as the women cooked two meals a day and the heat moved downstairs. Eventually, they found that grape vines provided great shade against the harsh sun, and so began planting and forming grape vines across only the first floor of the home (you can still see this in parts of Europe and Fall River, Mass. today). Soon after, families found themselves with too many grapes to deal with. The British, seeing an opportunity to make money, offered to buy the grapes from each home to make wine to send back to Europe. This wine became wildly popular and in-demand, but it was difficult to go up and down the mountain, home to home, to collect the grapes, so vineyards were planted for wine production.
The real story begins now. The barrels of wine would be stored in caves during fermentation, as wine is typically kept in cool and dark spaces. But one year, there was no time to keep the wine fermenting in the dark, and had to be shipped to Europe right away. The sailors knew that it was not ready to be moved, so they covered the barrels of wine with dark tarps to mimic the dark caves. However, they didn’t realize that the black cloth would generate even more heat on the barrels that needed to be stored in a cool place. Along the journey, the men could hear the wine bubbling inside the barrels and knew that the wine had been ruined.
Embarrassed of their mistake, the sailors didn’t tell their Lord (who ordered the wine and controlled the men) that the wine was ruined, only late. Another crew went back to Madeira immediately to begin the wine making process all over again, while the spoiled wine was left hidden and forgotten. That is, until some men found the wine barrels and, being opportunists, began drinking only to find that this wine was delicious!!
They sent word back to Madeira that this “new” process for fermenting wine was a success, and it has remained ever since.
Just as Susanne finished her story, she pointed out the window to say we were almost there!
The view of the vineyard from across the valley. It still took us twenty more minutes to get there!
You can clearly see from here each retaining wall that contained rows of grape vines.
The Vineyard \240 Upon arriving, we were immediately greeted by the owner of the winery, Antonio. He did not speak English, but shook our hands and seemed so kind. Suzanne then showed us to our tour guide, who walked with us through the vineyard.
Our tour guide talked to us about their grapes and how careful they need to be with their young 17-year-old vines. We walked and talked for about thirty minutes, and learned so much.
The first set of vines we came across on our tour. These are used for white wines and roses. The rich volcanic soil of the island gives nutrients to the vines, which gives a unique acidity to the grapes.
Walking to the rest of the vineyard. Every grape is picked by hand, so the vineyard has seasonal employees that come to help pick the grapes.
Looking up the mountain at the vines. The ocean is visible from the mountain side, which is in a valley, which creates strong winds, which jostles the vines leaves, which damages the grape. To combat the wind, a wall barrier made of dead tree branches is created in front of particularly vulnerable vines.
Our tour guide bringing us under some wines. Look through the vines on the left… you can see the village below!!
In addition to the sea providing damaging winds, it gives salty air to the vines. Grapes grown in this salty air are used in only certain wines that are meant to be acidic.
The Wine Tasting \240 Now that we had an appreciation for all of the hard work that goes into creating a bottle of wine, it was time to try them!
We tasted six different wines. DJ likes the whites, I liked the reds. The best part…She left the full bottles with us after the tasting for us to enjoy free of charge! Of course we didn’t finish all six bottles, but we were able to enjoy three more glasses of the delicious wine.
Cow’s cheese and Chorizo platter
Our view of the valley while we sampled the wines.
We left the winery feeling more appreciative of all wines, but even more so of Madeiran wine, which requires so much more hard work, determination, and love than other wines we had. We also left feeling super comfortable with the Madeiran people, getting to know our driver Suzanne and our tour guide, and learning more about their lives on the island. They’re so normal and KIND.
