MADEIRA WINE

Getting to grips with Madeira classification is a bit like playing 3-D chess. Here’s a simplified guide: Grapes There are four noble grape varieties: sercial is the lightest and driest; verdelho is medium-dry; bual, medium-sweet; and malvasia (malmsey) darker and sweeter. Other traditional grapes are bastardo and terrantez. The top tier of wines are slowly aged in natural warmth in the canteiro system, as opposed to the estufagem, a speeded-up, artificial process. Tinta negra, a widely-planted red grape, is used in many younger styles and the single-harvest colheita method. Such a ‘generic’ inexpensive Madeira may have ‘Finest’ or ‘Rainwater’ on the label and descriptive words like sweet, dry or medium sweet. Reserve wines These are between five and ten years of age. Special Reserve is ten to 15 years old and undergoes a higher quality winemaking process; Extra Reserve is 15-20 years; and Vintage is aged in the cask for 20 years plus. Blends are based on a mixture of years, not grapes. Unfortified wines The past few years have seen an increase in unfortified table wine, especially those made with verdelho. Look out for the EU quality assured term ‘VQPRD’ on the label.