Visiting Madeira

Hi,

I presume you're staying in Funchal?

If so try;

The Old Blandy Wine Lodge - very good, does guided tours, has 2 tasting rooms 1free the other is vintage and costs but you try it.

HM Borges - You can walk around the winery by yourself or just try the wines in their tasting room.

D'Oliverias - A bit more commercialised but still worth a visit as wine is free!

There is also a winery just east of Reids Palace, I think its called Barbeitos or similar.

They are all walkable from the centre of town - ask at your hotel and I'm sure they will point them out on a map.

We didn't get there but the one I also wanted to visit is in Ribeiro Brava the next major town east of Funchal - Henriques & Henriques.

Definitely buy the wine at the wineries if you can - some will ship home for you.

Hope this helps

Sorry that should have been west of Reids Palace - must have stayed too long at Blandy's!

ds

"Derek Stubbs" skrev i en meddelelse news:3fcce501$0$11179$ snipped-for-privacy@news.dial.pipex.com...

Thank you for the information, it was just what we needed!

Yes, we'll stay in Funchal, but we've rented a care and plan to explore as much as possible of the Island during our one-week stay. Our interest in wine in general is far from new, but the interest in Madeira Wines is quite new.

Thanks again.

Best regards Henning

Hi,

Try and do the Blandy's tour first if possible, its particularly good and informative about Madeira wine.

Bear the following in mind;

There are a number of "noble" Madeira grapes that are used to make several styles of Madeira from dry to sweet - Sercial, Verdelho, Bual and Malmsey - if they are not mentioned on the bottle the wine is made from Tinta Negra Mole - a grape which mimics the others according to what height it is grown at. Most restaurants will offer sweet - dry and all are probably t-n-m.

Vintage Madeira must have spent at least 20 years in a barrel before being bottled.

Most Madeira (from the noble grapes) will be referred to as 5,10 or 15 year old. Some are excellent, some less so - you've got to try as many as you can!

There are a few colheitas - wine produced from one years harvest but that don't fall into the above categories.

Good luck with the trip - sorry if the info is a bit overload.

Any other help on Madeira & places to visit etc drop me a line at snipped-for-privacy@dsl.pipex.com or afw

ds