1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

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The Vineyards and Wines of Madeira.

racter. Among the more remarkable was a deep-coloui-ed and l)owerfully aromatic old Yerdelho, vintaged at Sao Martinho^ and some luscious Moscatel from the landslip vineyard known as the Pajaa do Mar,with several excellent wines fromthe upper Cama de Lobos vineyards,and others from the north side of the- island, which exhibited considerable robustness,and had been reared without any addition of spirit. Senhor Leitao,formerly director of the Funchal branch of the Bank ofPortugal,and both a vineyard proprietor and holder oflarge quantities of wine,had his stock of Madeiras dispersed about the town in various stores, most of which were antiquated buildings several stories in- height, with decayed rafters and worm-eaten floors,that seemed to yield under their weight of rows upon rows of pipes of wine,, varied alike in age and character. Senhor Leitao's stock amounted to little short of 2,000 pipes, the value of which was between.£30,000 and ^640,000. The Madeira vintage in 1877,the year I visited the island,, was estimated not to exceed 7,000 pipes, one-half of which,, however,with due allowances for the unfavourable season,would be first-class wine. This yield is about one-fourth less than the average annual production of recent years, with the exception of 1876. The falling off was due partly to the phylloxera, but more especially to the excessive dampness of the preceding spring and summer, which caused much fruit to rot. Small as- the yield was calculated to be,it would still be equivalent to- double the annual shipments,although these have been steadily increasing since the vineyards which suffered so severely fronr. the oidium came into bearing again. Ninety years ago, the- earhest date of which we have available records, Madeira used to ship upwards of 10,000 pipes of wine annually. At the- commencement of the presentcenturythis quantity had increased to 17,000 pipes, and rose during the year 1813 to as many as 22,000. A variety of circumstances conduced to this result, of which one was the general turbulent state of Europe and the closing of certain -wine ports,and another the great consumption) of the wine in the East and West Indies, whither it was sent im