Madeira

by Liddell, Alex

• ISBN13: 9781840008135
• ISBN10: 184000813X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Octopus Pub Group

Summary

This vibrant history of a wine includes a tour of the vineyards around Madeira Island, a description of the unique process of making & maturing Madeira, tasting notes on over seventy individual vintage Madeira's, & a list of Madeira shippers & American, British, & Central European specialist dealers.

Author Biography

Alex Liddell was born in Glasgow in 1934. He pursued an academic career as a university lecturer in philosophy and politics until 1987, following which he became a wine investment advisor, working in Europe between 1987 and 1991. He is the author of Port Wine Quintas of the Douro and a contributor on Portuguese table wines to the 1997 Oz Clarke's Wine Guide. He has a lifelong interest in Madeira and fortified wine.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xix
The History of the Wine
Early History	p. 3
Discovery, colonization and land tenure	p. 3
Early development and trade	p. 5
The first wine	p. 5
The sixteenth century	p. 7
The character of the wine	p. 11
Madeira Comes of Age	p. 14
The seventeenth century	p. 14
The wine	p. 17
The character of the wine	p. 19
The Eighteenth Century	p. 24
The development of trade	p. 24
Fraud and increasing regulation	p. 26
The British influence	p. 29
Fortification	p. 30
Estufagem	p. 31
Viticulture	p. 33
The wine	p. 36
The Nineteenth Century I	p. 39
The unpopular British	p. 39
Boom and bust	p. 40
Disaster looms	p. 42
The first crisis	p. 49
The Nineteenth Century II	p. 55
The second crisis	p. 55
Viticulture and the wine	p. 59
The Twentieth Century	p. 67
Changing markets and the German 'threat'	p. 67
Developing control of the trade	p. 69
The inter-war years	p. 71
Climbing out of the doldrums	p. 73
Modern times	p. 76
Viticulture and the Wine
The Soil and the Grapes	p. 81
The soil	p. 81
The grapes of Madeira	p. 82
Vitis vinifera	p. 83
The recommended varieties	p. 87
The authorized varieties	p. 91
The direct producers	p. 93
The Vineyards	p. 96
Where are the vineyards?	p. 96
The Torre Bella Estate	p. 97
The Faja dos Padres	p. 99
The present situation	p. 102
The Douro comes to Madeira	p. 104
Porto Santo	p. 105
Vineyards round the island	p. 106
Viticulture and the Vintage	p. 111
Old vineyards	p. 111
New vineyards	p. 114
The Servicos de Producao Agricola	p. 115
The vintage	p. 116
Making and Maturing the Wine	p. 121
Vinification	p. 121
Generic wine	p. 122
Varietal madeiras	p. 128
Maturing the wine	p. 129
From Cask to Customer	p. 134
Official classification of wines	p. 134
Blending	p. 137
Legal controls	p. 139
Today's Madeiras	p. 143
The characteristics of madeira	p. 143
Generic madeiras	p. 146
3 year old madeiras	p. 147
5 year old madeiras	p. 147
10 and 15 year old madeiras	p. 148
Old soleras	p. 149
Vintage wines	p. 150
Notes on Some Vintage Madeiras	p. 158
The Shippers
The Shippers	p. 185
Artur de Barros e Sousa, Lda	p. 185
H. M. Borges, Sucrs., Lda	p. 188
Henriques and Henriques	p. 190
The Madeira Wine Company, SA	p. 194
Pereira d'Oliveira (Vinhos), Lda	p. 202
Silva Vinhos, Lda	p. 203
Vinhos Barbeito (Madeira), Lda	p. 205
Vinhos Justino Henriques, Filhos, Lda	p. 210
Other firms	p. 212
The Future
The Future	p. 217
Maps	p. 225
Appendices	p. 231
Madeira: Some Basic Information	p. 235
Control of the Wine Industry	p. 239
Exports during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries	p. 242
Production and Exports, 1980-1995	p. 243
The 1792 Vintage and the Napoleon Madeira	p. 246
Vidonho and Vidonia: An Unsolved Mystery	p. 250
The Condell Innes Notebook	p. 256
Suppliers	p. 258
Notes	p. 261
Glossary	p. 280
Bibliography	p. 284
Index	p. 288
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