AND A TABLE WINE TO GO ALONG

It’s now common to find table wines made in Madeira in any restaurant of the archipelago. A recent phenomenon and a solid certainty.

The Regional Government of Madeira has wisely decided to support table wine producers creating and equipping the Adega (wine cellar) of São Vicente. Inside, most of the wine production in the island is kept in barrels even if for now very little of that effort reaches continental Portugal, least of all the concept of exporting.

Quinta do Barbusano, Ponta do Tristão or Terras do Avô, with variants of white, red and rosé, are born from vineyards at São Vicente, Seixal and Porto Moniz. For now, some 20 wine labels are coming from about 15 producers and have been writing the story of Madeira’s table wines in the last decade or so. The list of castes is long, the reds of Madeira still faithful to Cabernet Sauvignon, Tinta Negra, Merlot, Aragonez and Touriga Nacional while the whites come al­most exclusively from Arnsburger and Verdelho.

Most of them are fruity, the colors from crystal clear to pure gold, the reds in raspberry tones and solid bodies, whites and rosés fulfilling the favors of the climate, the irregularity of the terrain, the orders given by ocean winds. Tropical, dry, sweet or with the proper acidity, the table wines of Madeira deserve a patient sense of taste.