Like Madeira Wine and Visiting the Madeira Island? All You Need to Know about the Madeira Winemakers and their wines

Curious History of Madeira Wine

Before becoming recognized globally as a tourist destination, Madeira Island was first known as a fortified wine producer.

Madeira merchants were exporting wines to European countries as early as 1444.

Predictably, when in the fall of 2022 fate brought us to Madeira, we had to see for ourselves what all the fuss was about.

Decoding the Craft: How do they make Madeira Wines?

The shortcut, known as Estufagem, requires producers to heat the wine in a commercial metal vat up to 55 degrees Centigrade for a few months. It is said that by using estufas, winemakers can cut the aging time of their wines from 3 years to just 3 months.

Fortified Madeira wine making today: The definitive guide to all Madeira wineries on the island

There are eighteen winemakers on Madeira Island. To our surprise, only eight of these make traditional fortified Madeira wines. Only five remained focused on the production of Madeira wine only. We refer to these winemakers as “pure play”. The other three winemakers have branched into making table wines in addition to making traditional fortified Madeira. We refer to these as “fingers in many pies” winemakers.

“Pure Play” Madeira Winemakers:

D’Oliveiras was founded at about the same time as Henriques & Henriques. But unlike Henriques & Henriques, D’Oliveiras’s business didn’t grow to the same size and grandeur.

Today the winery’s repertoire includes 5 to 15 years old, predominantly Tinta Negra blends of all dryness levels.

D’Oliveiras has an incredible range of Frasquieras and Colheitas made of Tinta Negra, Noble Four (Boal, Malvasia, Verdelho, Sercial), and rare varietals (Bastardo and Terrantez). As far as we know, this is the only winery that carries Frasquiera, dated 1875 and made of the extremely rare Moscatel grape.

D’Oliveiras claims to have one million litres of Madeira wine in their storage, presumably both in barrels and bottles.

D’Oliveiras has five locations in the capital city of Funchal. Supposedly they do wine tasting in all five locations, information we couldn’t verify. If you plan a visit, go to the D’Oliveiras main sales office on the Rua dos Ferreiros. Before it got sold to D’Oliveiras in 1911, this building housed Funchal’s High School. It represents a fine piece of Funchal’s history. Today D’Oliveiras does wine tasting there on a drop-in basis. If you drive, be prepared to drive around for a while. Parking is notoriously hard to find in the area.

This winemaker’s Madeira wine range includes 3, 5, and 10 years old Tinta Negra blends. J. Faria & Filhos does not own any vineyards and purchases all its grapes from local farmers. We do not know if this winery does or plans to do wine tasting in its new office in Funchal or elsewhere. Except for Facebook, J. Faria & Filhos does not have much of an online presence. Finding any information about this business is a challenge.

We did not visit this winery on our trip to Madeira. However, we tasted J. Faria & Filhos 3 years old sweet blended wine and are sharing our tasting notes and food pairing ideas in this blog post: J. Faria and Filhos tasting notes. Plus, the Art of choosing, tasting and food pairing Madeira Wine. Any new posts will appear here: *J. Faria and Filhos

This is a new entrant onto the fortified Madeira winemaking scene. We did not visit them on our trip. However, we were able to taste their wines. In this post, we share the information we found as we planned our trip to this winery.

Started as a project by the Agricultural Cooperative of Funchal (CAF) in 1951, Madeira Vintners was registered as a brand in 2013. They began marketing their wines in 2016. This winemaker has a few interesting aspects to it. Firstly, this is a young all-women team. Secondly, in a clear departure from tradition, Madeira Vintners’ under 10 years old blended wines alcohol level is below the standard 19%.

At a 17% alcohol level, these wines represent an innovation meant to attract the younger generation. Their current product line includes 3 and 5 years old medium-sweet, sweet, medium-dry, and dry Madeira wine. Notably, Madeira Vintners produces 5 years old Listrão blend. Listrão is a rare grape that can only be found on Porto Santo island. We know of only one other winemaker that produces Listrão wine- Blandy’s. But, as they told us at Blandy’s, this wine was long sold out.

If you want to visit this winery, start by filling in a wine tasting form on the Madeira Vintners website. If you do go, please share with our readers and us your wine-tasting and guided tour experience.

Related posts: *Madeira Vintners

“Fingers in all pies” Madeira Winemakers:

It is hard to blame these winemakers for not staying true to the original wine of Madeira. When two of your largest customers, first Russia, then the United States of America, cancel their orders, the only smart way to stay in business is to diversify.

Madeira Wine Company was formed after Blandy’s Madeira and Leacock’s Madeira joined forces and became a single company.

Leacock’s Madeira produces Tinta Negra fortified wine blends and limited Tinta Negra Colheitas and Frasqueiras. Their blended wines repertoire includes 3 and 5 years old dry, medium-dry, and sweet blends, 10 years old medium-dry and medium-sweet blends, and 15 years old medium-sweet blend.

Madeira Wine Company’s foray into table wine production is represented by its Atlantis brand.

Founded in 1946, Barbeito owners mean it when they say that strengthening relationships with their customers is the top priority for their business. No surprise that information about the Barbeito wines, wine tasting and tours is easily accessible on the company website. Have other questions that you could not get an answer to online? Send Barbeito an email, and someone will promptly reply.

The company is currently led by Ricardo Diogo, the grandson of Barbeito’s founder. Since forming a partnership with the Kinoshita family, Barbeito has seen impressive growth and a lot of innovation. In 2008 Barbeito built a modern winery incorporating both cutting-edge technology and a traditional canteiro aging room.

This business is smart enough and still small enough to care a great deal about its image. Barbeito spends a lot of marketing Euros promoting the brand and its wines. In a clear departure from tradition, Barbeito is known for its modern, and often provoking labels, that, on their own, attract a lot of attention to its brand.

This winery is not just a cool label on a bottle. Barbeito’s line of fortified and table wines is impressive, to say the least.

Their blended wines range includes dry, medium-dry, medium-sweet, and sweet 3, 5, and 10 years old blends. The 3 years old blends are made of Tinta Negra. The 5 and 10 years old blends are either single varietals or a blend of Tinta Negra with one of the four noble varietals. Despite being a younger winery, the repertoire of their Frasqueiras is mind-boggling.

Take, for example, an extremely rare, almost extinct Bastardo varietal. They told us on the Island that the Bastardo grape was extinct. We were glad to discover the 1927 Bastardo Frasquiera at D’Oliveira’s. We were gobsmacked to find three different Bastardo blended wines produced by Barbeito. How could that be possible? The story is, Barbeito sourced Bastardo grapes from the only vineyard on the Island that successfully revived this varietal. Only 400 litres were produced from Bastardo’s first harvest in 2007.

If that is not perseverance and dedication, then what is?

Barbeito table wines are produced under the Barbeito label.

Unlike most wineries, they do wine tours at Barbeito. Barbeito has free wine tasting that includes not only 3 years old but also 5 years old fortified wines. On the high end of the spectrum, the tour and wine tasting will cost you 20€. This option gives you a tasting of eight wines, inclusive of Frasquiera or Colheita. As far as we know, this is the best deal on the Island.

Regrettably, we did not taste Barbeito’s wines and cannot opine on any of them.

We badly wanted to visit Barbeito to try their wines and go on the tour. We tried to drive to this winery twice! Unfortunately, Barbeito’s location, high up the mountain, was inaccessible to our rental car. A lot of Madeira roads are so narrow that they should have been one way only. On top of that many of these roads have an uncanny ability to climb, almost vertically, uphill. Still, we persevered and drew up what had to be one of the steepest roads in the world. When our rental car almost rolled over at one of the steepest slopes we have ever encountered in our lives, we called it quits and gave up trying to make it to Barbeito. That was one of the biggest let-downs of our Madeira trip.

Justino’s Madeira Wines, S.A. was established in 1953. They produced and exported wines as a family-run business as early as the end of the 19th century.

It is believed that Justino’s holds one of the largest wine stocks on the Island.

Justino’s online presence is passable. Unfortunately, the company website does not provide any information about wine tasting or tours. Our email inquiry to them remained unanswered. The information we found suggests that Justino’s does wine tasting and visits by appointment. As we got no reply to our wine tasting visit request, we can only share the information we found when we planned a trip to this winery.

Remember to share your tour experience with our readers and us if you do visit them.

Justino’s Madeira Wines has two brands, Justino’s Madeira and Colombo Madeira. Justino’s 3, 5, and 10 years old blended wines are predominantly Tinta Negra blends. Notably, this winemaker carries 50 years old Terrantez blend exclusive to Justino’s brand.

Justino’s Colheitas are sold under both Justino’s and Colombo brands. Frasqueira is sold under Justino’s Madeira brand only.

Justino’s is one of the three traditional Madeira winemakers that branched into table wines sold under their Colombo brand.

Bottom Line

So, which winery do we recommend that you visit?

• If you want to get a feel for how this wine was made by the Islanders when Madeira was a drink of choice for the rich and famous, go to H.M. Borges.
• If trying rare wines is your top priority, pick Henriques & Henriques.
• We won’t recommend Blandy’s as there’s no avoiding it, with or without a recommendation from anyone. It is very much in your face as soon as you say “Madeira wine.”
• We recommend you pay Barbeito a visit, provided you can physically reach them. If you do, remember to share with our readers and us your review of your trip and your wine-tasting notes.