Madeira: The wine that defies time

To keep their wines from spoiling, Portugese farmers added a little brandy to the barrel.

There’s a good reason that Madeira is nearly synonymous with old-fashioned reliability, said Elin McCoy in Bloomberg.com. Portuguese farmers have been tilling “steep mountain vineyards on the eponymous volcanic island” off Africa’s coast since the 1700s.

To keep their wines from spoiling during long ocean deliveries to Europe or the Americas, they “fortified” them, dosing each batch with brandy during fermentation. The result was a virtually “indestructible” beverage that could keep seemingly forever. For a splurge, here are three bottles that prove Madeira can still taste exquisite decades—even centuries—later. You can find a dealer through Wine-searcher.com.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us