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 What if someone told you that a wine has no expiry date and travels well, has no storage problem, even after keeping the opened bottle for 2 years and can be possibly enjoyed with Indian food? Madeira is the answer. It is a fortified wine produced in Madeira in Portugal from local grapes and can have an extremely long shelf life. ‘There is Madeira of 1795 vintage, which is still good and can keep ‘forever’; the oldest I have tasted was a 1715. An open bottle may be kept for two years and if you cannot sell the bottle in a restaurant for two years after opening, you are not a sommelier. Of course, I struggle not to finish the bottle within 15-20 minutes,’ said Rui Falcão, one of the organisers of MUST Wine Summit held in Cascais on June 7-9, during his seminar on Madeira, a much misunderstood wine. He spoke with passion about this popular fortified wine that has lost some of its sheen in the past few years (Paul Symington had earlier focussed his talk on Porto).
Madeira is also the name of the Portuguese island where the world renowned fortified wine is made. About 1000 kms from Lisbon it is known to have some of the best heavenly spots. It may be reached conveniently by air in 90 minutes from Lisbon, though convenient flights are also available from London. There are no flat lands around seaside. Sometime, you just have to take a cable car to go from one place to the other.
However, it’s one of the worst places in the world for making wine. Located inSouthwest of Portugal and northwest of African continent, it has sub-tropical climate. Summer temperatures average 20-22°C, never too warm. In winter it goes down to 17-19°C- perfect for humans. But not good for wines, said Rui.
‘We struggle to ripen the grape. Fog is very common and is challenging to ripen. In winters, there is no dormancy. It’s warm and humidity is also a problem. But we have one thing what we need- acidity. As a comparative example, if it weren’t for second fermentation, champagne would be an ordinary wine. We are doing something similar in Madeira. No second fermentation but fortifying and maturing again- which is the key. When you pick the grapes, the potential alcohol would vary from 8- 8.5 or sometimes 9%. We are adding spirits-natural alcohol at 96% strength.’ He also talked about Estufagem, the unique method of aging the wine through boiling the wine for a certain period.
Normally a still wine is possible to make in Madeira but not recommended. It’s akin to everyone being able to make fortified wine but making Madeira is not feasible. No wonder it is a PDO wine (Protected Denomination Origin). However, fake Madeira is also available in the market-specially from Crimea. So one must be careful and buy Madeira made in Madeira.
Madeira was made initially to travel overseas- sugar cane and alcohol was added. Later they started added grape spirit. Over time they went back to sugar cane and again back to grape alcohol. 20% of what is added in the liquid is from outside the region. Sugar cane is in plenty. If we could distil it somehow, it could be possible to add it. But adding grape- distilled alcohol has become the norm since sugar cane alcohol is very expensive.
Grapes in Madeira
There are five basic grape varieties that go into making Madeira wines- Sercial- dry, Verdelho in Grapes fro madeira ,- med dry Boal (Bual) med sweet, Malvasia (Malmsey) sweet and Tinta Negra (with flexible sweetness). First four varieties are sometimes called noble varieties. But locals are not happy with this since Tinta Negra red is 85% of the total acreage.
 Other grape varieties are Terrantez (white), Bastardo (red with low yields), Malvasia Candid, Listão (Porto Santo) and Complexa (red) though many producers have been using it earlier but are now being pulled out and new varieties are being planted, he said, adding he didn’t like this last variety.
Rui was effusive about his praise for Moscatel (Muscat). He said, ‘they are grown on only 0.5 hA area, but some of the best Madeira for me is from these grapes. A 1900 (vintage) Muscat I tasted was the best Madeira ever. I could never tell the grape. The acidity is so sharp that it stays for 3-5 minutes on the palate!) Acidity is not due to unripe grapes but the soil which is volcanic and acidic.
‘Many great varieties are being grown in the nursery of Madeira Wine Institute. It is not known how they will affect the ageing process though’. But grapes are very expensive in Madeira. Priced much higher than €1, makes the growers very happy but the job of wineries becomes very difficult.
Wineries and harvest
In Madeira you have to be extremely stupid or rich to start a new winery because it takes decades before you you might recuperate your investment. No wonder there are only 8 wineries in the whole of Madeira. In the last 50 or 60 years only one new winery has dared to come up a few years ago. Total area under vines is 444 hA. Only 2 wineries have their own vineyards- one is 10 ha and the other around 2 hA. Basically, 2043 growers own the land with 0.2 hA as the average size. Many are much smaller. In fact the smallest grower has ONLY 2 vines! Thus the personal relationships are really important in Madeira.
Harvesting Madeira grapes
Vintaging is a nightmare. Most vineyards are planted on pergola system. Some are 1 to 1.5 m high-making it very difficult to work as one has to bend to harvest. Soils are too steep for comfort- 60° slopes are common and some are even practically vertical! A few Hectares of new vineyards are on wires. Yields are very high though, since the land is very fertile.
It was banned earlier to mention the name of Tinta Negra on the label as a grape variety- not because the quality was not good, it was in fact excellent. It has been allowed since 18th century, however.Madeira has to be single grape variety. EU says 85% of the variety may be used to call it a varietal. However, some wineries are working towards blending. In those cases Tinta Negra is easier and in fact, usually used in these blends. Blending is a tricky question for different sweetness. Blending different varieties continues to be isolated cases since there are only two wines that represent blends.
Also there is no mention of residual sugar, but in terms of Beaumes a Sercial (dry varietal) could have 35-40 Gms. of residual sugar; but because of the high acidity you might still feel it is dry. Madeira producers often talk about the residual sugar. But the division between dry, medium dry, medium sweet and sweet wines is determined by Baumé levels instead of residual sugar.
Flexible Wine
 Madeira is the most flexible wine. It is also a misunderstood wine as people think it is a sweet wine. Depending on the grapes used and the style of making, it can be sweet or dry. It’s a great match with slightly spicy Asian foods- therefore we need to promote it with this style of food. Some growers are actually trying to grow grapes organically; there is at least one winery which is already doing so. However, this is tricky due to humidity and warmth.
Rui clarified that normally still wine is possible in Madeira but not recommended. It’s like everyone can make fortified wine but making a genuine Madeira is not possible elsewhere.
No Madeira but Madera and Madira in India
India used to be a limited market for Madeira but for the last several years, the sales have dried out as the demand is very low and due to high registration costs, it’s not practical to import small quantities. I do not know of any importer directly importing it. This is an interesting paradox considering it can be stored for an indefinite period and is a very rugged wine to travel and store the open bottle. It could also match Indian food well.
It is pertinent to point out the Madera available in India is a local ‘Nashik Valley Red Wine’ produced by Sula at the old Pimpane winery. This wine is made from local grapes and retails for Rs. 470 and has otherwise nothing in common with Madeira, but one of the several labels wines produced by Sula Vineyards which also produced a ‘Nashik Port’.
Co-incidentally, in Sanskritised Hindi language one of the names of wine is known as Madira. So don’t drink Madera but Madeira if you drink Madira! And make sure it is from Madeira! Jai Ho!!
Subhash Arora |