1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

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The Vineyards and Wines of Madeira.

Madeira,and is now exceedingly rare (in the Ponta do Pargo ■district on the south-west of the island it is most prevalent), jields a strong, dry, white wine,possessing an exquisite bouquet. When young, however, this wine is harsh to the palate, age being requisite to bring it to perfection and develop that nutty flavour for which it is distinguished. Another grape is the bual or boal, also rather rare, and giving a rich luscious wine, ■delicate in flavour and with a special bouquet. The black grape commonly found intermingledwith the foregoingwhite varieties is the tinta, from which a distinct wine is to some extent made, deep in colour and astringent in flavour, due to the stalks and skins of the grapes being steeped in the must during fermenta tion. In a few years this wine becomes tawny, and in course of time subsides to the colour of an average deepMadeira. Another variety of grape, known as the bastardo, is of a pinkish hue. The wine it produces has a very fine bouquet, and is sweet to the taste, leaving behind it, however, a not unpleasant astrin- gency. Other white grapes occasionally met with are the tarantrez, the listrao, and the maroto, the first of which yields a wine held in some estimation when old. Every one has heard of the famous Malmsey Madeira, pro- ■duced from the malvasia species of grape—a luscious wine, which with age becomes somewhat spirituous, and has all the character of a fine liqueur. For a number of years the finest Malmsey produced in the island was grown in one particular spot close to the sea, and rmder a high cliff called Fajaa dos Padres, to the west of Cama de Lobos, and in a vineyaid belonging to the Jesuits. To-day, however, the vineyard has become the property of the Netto family, and is planted prin cipally with vines of the verdelho variety. The malvasia grape requires a very dry soil and intense heat, and is not usually gathered until it partakes of the character of the raisin. An insignificant quantity of wine is made from the muscatel grape, sweet in flavour, and possessing the well-known special bouquet which a decoction of elder-flowers imitates so successfully. The Madeira vineyards being, as a rule, small in area, and planted