Madeira

The volcanic island of Madeira was developed by Prince Henry (Henrique) the Navigator as a paradise on the Atlantic Ocean. Located 1,000 km southwest from Lisbon (Lisboa), the fortified wines produced on this island are called Madeira. In the 16th century, during the age of Sail, ships heading to the New American Continent were loaded with wines and supplies at Madeira, the last speck of land on their route. It was later known that the wines obtained unique flavours during the long and hot voyage crossing the equator. The wines were stored either on deck or in the hold. Either way, they were exposed to high temperatures and increased oxygen from ships crashing over the waves of the mid Atlantic. This was discovered by the wine producers of Madeira when an unsold shipment of wine returned to the islands after a round trip. Oxidation generally causes a disaster to wines, but it happened to give unique flavours to characterise Madeira wines. There was a period when the wines were intentionally sent on ships to obtain the unique flavours and often completed the round trip to the Americas and back, just to develop their unique character. These wines were called Vinho da Roda to identify them as having aged in the harsh conditions at sea. The wines of that time were not the same as present Madeira as they were not fortified. Fortification was started in the 18th century. Around this period, the large market for Madeira was lost as the conflicts concerning the Strait of Gibraltar prevented the ships bound for North America and the Caribbean Islands from stopping at the Island. Madeira wine producers were forced to build warehouses to store the wines as they needed to wait for recovery of the sailing route, but the capacity of storage was not enough as the island had little flat land. Many barrels were left out in the rain and sun. They distilled some of the wine and added it to the rest of wine to help preserve the wines. When they tasted the resulted wine later, the taste was further improved. From then on, fortification became an indispensable process to produce Madeira wines.  The process to mature the wines with heat on the island was also developed from extended storage and it gave to the wines the same unique flavours as given by the troublesome method of maturing wines on a ship sailing around the equator. This heated maturation process is the most remarkable characteristic of Madeira and is now known as the Estufagem process.