Madeira Island Winery Spotlight: Madeira Vintners and their Fenix

Wine created by women

The newest producer on the Island of Madeira, Madeira Vintners, was started as a project by the Agricultural Cooperative of Funchal (CAF) in 2012.

In 2013 Madeira Vintners was registered as a brand. They started marketing their wines in 2016. Thanks to a younger and all-women winemaking team, the results of Madeira Vintners’ labor have generated much interest and scrutiny, which also meant publicity.

To be fair, the all-women winemaking team picked our interest too. But it was these vintners’ unorthodox reimagining of a fortified Madeira that made us want to explore their wines. Curios?

You see, there are rules and regulations to be followed when producing Madeira fortified wines. According to the rules, all fortified Madeira wine blends under 10 years old must have an alcohol level of 19%. All fortified wine blends over 10 years old must be 20%.

These rules are willingly and purposefully broken by the Madeira Vintners. The alcohol level in their 3 and 5 years old blended wines comes at 17%. A clear departure from tradition and rules, this innovation is meant to attract a younger crowd more inclined to drink table wines than fortified Madeira.

Madeira Vintners’ primary product line includes 3 and 5 years old medium-sweet, sweet, medium-dry, and dry Madeira wine made of Tinta Negra. Lately, their wine lineup includes fortified wines made of the noble grape Malvasia and Listrão.

Listrão is a rare grape to be found only on Porto Santo island. We know of only one other winemaker that produces Listrão Madeira wine, Blandy’s. But, as they told us at Blandy’s, this wine was long sold out.

Wine tasting notes and food pairing recommendations

This is a great introduction to Madeira fortified wines. Fenix is the approachable, 3 years old blended wine that won’t blow an alcohol equivalent of an atomic bomb on your palate.

We had our bottle of Fenix open for three months. We did not observe much if any, loss of flavor profile.

If you have a bottle of this wine in your cellar, you can drink it now or whenever you wish. Madeira wine does not age further or deteriorate once bottled.

Pairing this wine with food is relatively straightforward.

Unlike most Madeira wines, Fenix pairs well with savory dishes. These are some of our favorite food pairings:

• Our favorite fish pairing with Fenix was a fillet of turbot with mushrooms and miso beurre blanc sauce served on potato blinis. This was the only fortified Madeira wine that paired well with fish. How well? So well that we are ready to call this food and wine pairing a “Perfect 10”
• Duck breast with beets and arugula salad is another excellent food pairing. This one is not so secret. Beets and pan fried duck or duck confit generally work well with various dry Madeira wines.

Cheeses that work well with Fenix are:

• Challerhocker from Swiss Alps
• Delice de Bourgogne, a bloomy rind soft cheese
• Florette, a goat brie
• Grand Margaux brie.

Interestingly, the blue cheeses, like the creamy Gorgonzola, a usual go-to cheese pairing for Madeira wines, didn’t work with Fenix.

Unlike most fortified Madeira, Fenix does not pair well with chocolate and sweet desserts like caramel flans and chocolate mousses.

Deserts that work are:

• Classic French lemon tart
• Classic New York cheesecake or New York passion fruit cheesecake. Cheesecake must have as little sugar as possible to work with this wine.

Bottom line

This got to be our favorite 3 years old dry Madeira blended wine.

We liked it for its lower alcohol content and the relative ease with which this wine pairs with food. In one of our earlier posts, we wrote that if you have never tried fortified Madeira wine, appreciating it may be similar to taking a trip to the moon. It feels alien, and it takes time to learn, understand and appreciate the new flavors found in these wines.

Truth be told that Madeira fortified wines are out of fashion these days. At present, only 8 fortified Madeira winemakers remain on the Island of Madeira. Three of these have diversified their production and are now making table wines in addition to the fortified Madeira wines, a viable approach to stay in business but a troubling trend for Madeira wine’s existence.

Madeira Vintners took a different approach and decided to instead modernize the concept of the fortified Madeira wine itself. With their Fenix, Dry Madeira wine, Madeira Vintners tried their darndest best to make Madeira wine as approachable as possible to the average table wine drinker. The obvious question is whether they will achieve this lofty goal.

We think these ladies should be applauded for perseverance, creativity and, yes, producing wines of the most exceptional quality.

Maybe thanks to them, Madeira fortified wines will stage a comeback, much like a magical bird Phoenix that comes back to life from ashes.

And that’s a wrap!

Related posts:

Fortified Madeira winemakers, their wines and wineries