Madeira Wine Company

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The Madeira Wine Company has come a long way since it was formed in 1913: today, it accounts for around 35% of the island’s total Madeira production.

It began as the joint venture of two producers who wanted to survive a bleak economic period by pooling their resources and reducing costs. They formed the Madeira Wine Association, and over the years several other companies joined them to brave the increasingly competitive and costly market.

One of the most notable additions was Blandy’s, who came on board in 1925, at the same time as Leacock’s. Along with Cossart Gordon and Co, who joined in 1953, and Rutherford and Miles, these four companies today make up the main brands associated with the company’s premium Madeira production.

Blandy’s is the company that has had by far the most involvement in the running of organisation, perhaps due to its significant experience: the only remaining Madeira company that is still family-run, in 2011 it celebrated 200 years of production, having made a considerable contribution to the history and development of Madeira.

John Ernest Blandy became chairman of the Madeira Wine Company in 1925. His right-hand man was a previous Blandy’s manager, Thomas L Mullins, who instilled in the union a spirit of keeping each company true to its own style while reducing overheads. This ethos exists to this day, which is perhaps why the organisation has lasted as long as it has.

The Madeira Wine Association didn’t become The Madeira Wine Company until 1981. By this point, although Blandy’s were still running the company, it knew that even its wealth of experience wasn’t enough to achieve the worldwide distribution it needed. The team sought the help of renowned port brand Symington’s, with whom the company formed a partnership in 1989.

It wasn’t just the Madeira Wine Company’s distribution needs that Symington’s met – they also advised the various producers involved on their branding, and brought production methods at the company’s winery to modern, state-of-the-art standards. In 2000, the Madeira Wine Company completed a huge renovation project to improve its blending and storage facilities.

Although Symington’s is still involved with the company, Blandy’s took control again in 2011, with the appointment of Chris Blandy as chief executive. Since taking over again, Blandy’s has overseen the purchase of the company’s first vineyards: although, as is the norm, most of its grapes come from selected growers across the island, the company now has a few select plots of its own.

The wine is all made at the company’s winery in Mercês, where the team also have a cooperage to make all its own casks. Winemaking is overseen by the award-winning Francisco Albequerque, who expertly manages to produce each of the four leading brands in their respective individual styles.

When it comes to maturation, the company ages a large portion of its oldest wines using the traditional canteiro system, whereby wines are gently warmed in the lofts of the winery. Although this natural method isn’t suitable for younger wines, such as The Society’s Full Rich Madeira, it is perhaps a testament to how dearly the company holds its rich and long heritage.

Madeira

The Portuguese island of Madeira, which lies in the Atlantic Ocean, 480 miles southwest of Lisbon, was an important refuelling port for passing ships on the trade routes of old. Madeira wines were taken on board as victuals and brandy added to each barrel of wine to improve its keeping qualities during the long sea voyages. The heat of the ship's hold, particularly when crossing and re-crossing the equator, was found to have dramatically improved the wines, making them richer and more complex, as well as making them stable and capable of ageing almost indefinitely.

In the 18th century winemakers experimented with replicating this process on land, initially using the heat of the sun to warm up the barrels. This is known as the Canteiro process and it is still used. After fortification with 96% grape spirit, the wines are left in casks of between 300 - 650 litres, in lodges where the temperature can reach over 30oc and the humidity can reach 90%, causing 4 - 5% is lost by evaporation.

Later special ovens (‘estufas’) were created to heat up the barrels of wine. The process has been modified in recent years. The wines containers, mainly of stainless steel, are now heated by 'jackets' containing hot water, enabling maintaining of the required temperature of 45oc – 50oc for a period of three months. After heating, the wines are allowed to cool down gradually.

After these processes the wines are tested for quality and ageing potential. The latter decision is based on quality and the style of wine required. The wine is aged in old barrels and then offered as a 3, 5, 10 or 15-year-old wine, with the very best being offered as vintage Madeira.

Madeira wines are unquestionably the longest lasting high-quality wines produced. A vintage Madeira can last for a century or longer, and then once opened the wine can be enjoyed, re-stoppered and stored for months without deterioration.

Madeira grapes
Most labels list the grape used, and if one is mentioned then the contents have to contain at least 85% of this variety. The grape varieties listed give a huge clue as to the style of the wine. The main varieties used are as follows:

Sercial - A white grape, usually grown in the coolest vineyards at 1,000 metres altitude, on the north side of the Island. At altitude, sercial ripens with difficulty and makes a dry, acidic wine. With fortification and cask ageing a good sercial is pale, dry, tangy and austere.

Verdelho - A white grape also predominately planted on the cooler north side of the island, tends to produce a medium-dry to medium-sweet wine, perhaps with a slight caramel tinge. Mellower than sercial, it retains the acidity.

Bual (Boal) - A white grape grown in warmer locations on the south coast of the island. It reaches higher sugar levels than both sercial and verdelho and produces a dark, medium-rich raisin and caramel wine which again retains its acididty.

Malmsey (Malvasia) - A white grape produced mainly in the warmer locations on the south of the island around Camara de Lobos to the west of Funchal, producing a richly sweet wine that avoids being cloying due to maintaining the high level of acidity found in all Madeira wines.

Tinta negra is a red grape and the most widely planted grape on the island. It can and does make decent Madeira, but its wines rarely have the keeping qualities and style of the above four.

Terrantez - little terrantez, a white grape, is now grown. Some re-planting is taking place but with low yields growers are not very enthusiastic. Mainly now found in old vintages or soleras, it can vary in style from dry to rich.

Madeira types

3, 5, 10 and 15-year-old - These are the most readily available wines, the label shows the age of the youngest constituent. Mainly produced in the estufa system, the wine is made from one of the four classic grape varieties mentioned above this will be stated on the label. If no grape variety is stated, the wine will be made mainly from the widely grown red tinta negra grape and the wine will labelled with the level of sweetness.

Single harvest -A wine labelled 'single harvest' is a wine from a single vintage that has had 5-10 years cask ageing in the Canteiro system. It cannot be labelled as a 'vintage' wine as it has not had enough cask ageing.

Colheita - A single-vintage wine that has had about 12-18 years in cask, in the Canteiro system, bottled as a single vintage, probably because the blender has considered that more cask ageing will not improve it enough to make a top-quality vintage wine.

Vintage - The best Madeiras produced. A single vintage wine that has had at least 20 years cask ageing, and often more than 40 years, in the Canteiro system. They can last a lifetime and beyond and still remain remarkably fresh. The complexity and depth is underpinned by a crisp acidity which prevents the wines from being cloying.