Madeira, Portugal 2021
We arrived at Porto Santo, the small island to the northeast of Madeira Grande, the main island. Porto Santo is a small island, lower than the steep hillsides of Madeira Grande, and less of a “destination” spot. Cruisers stop here, and it is a beach resort area for locals, but not much beyond that. Kimberly and I spent the one day we had there walking along the beach and then headed to the old town center.
We happened upon a little wine bar and thought we might stop back there later in the afternoon after we saw the sign indicating they had sangria made with local Porto Santo wine. They had a window display of all sorts of wines, jams and other delights. We were window browsing when a woman came out and struck up a conversation. She spoke excellent English but would be on break in the afternoon when we thought we’d return, so one thing led to another and we went inside to learn about Porto Santo wines and other local products. This was a family-owned business and they had a vineyard and garden. They grew their own grapes, made their own wines, and produced their own jams and some bakery products. They sold it all at this delightful little establishment. We enjoyed our time there, both initially and when we returned later in the afternoon for a glass of their homemade sangria. In fact, the sangria was so delicious, we decided to buy some to take with us. They made it up and bottled it for us right there! We also were delighted to make a new friend in the lovely woman who worked there.
Then it was off to Madeira Grande! We anchored directly off of Funchal, the capitol, on the southern coast. I was to have almost a week there before needing to fly out… unfortunately, my Schengen visa time was running out, so I wouldn’t be able to join for the onward trip to the Canaries and booked an Airbnb in the old town. Kimberly and I headed out the first day to explore, taste Madeira wines (the third of the fortified wines regions). The flower festival was going on and the Madeira wine festival starting as well, so there would be plenty to enjoy!
We visited Blandy’s first, the most well-known brand, as it was directly in town and located next to the tourist information center, very convenient. It wasn’t the personalized tasting experience we had enjoyed in Porto and Jerez, but gave us a bit of background and a start at what Madeira was all about. But Madeira wine wasn’t just about the fortified stuff, no no no, Kimberly and I enjoyed a variety of homemade sangrias and ponchas, a local drink that comes in a variety of colors/types… Kimberly enjoyed one that was green and delicious! Poncha is made with local cane sugar, and a variety of fruit juices.
We bought 5-day passes and did the hop-on/hop-off bus thing to explore some outlying areas, tasted more, and enjoyed the local sights and fare – Yay, grilled skewers done beautifully and the special Portuguese garlic bread, which couldn’t be beat! We found out that our Airbnb host’s brother is one of the owners of the Henriques & Henriques, so of course we needed to do a most thorough tasting there!
Kimberly and I had a lot of fun with her video game characters on her phone. Savvy Sailing Girl has never played video games so this was all new to her. Apparently, you can have characters and avatars that follow you around as long as you feed them virtual snacks online. This guy was not only cute, but willing to pose with me for a photo! 🙂
We, of course, needed to do some of the touristy things, including taking the gondola from Funchal up the mountain and then the basket toboggans back down. What a blast that was!
Then, all of a sudden and before you knew it, our time was up. Kimberly and I needed to say goodby to one another and the beautiful island of Madeira for onward next adventures! Hopefully getting to meet up and sail together again sometime in the future!
In summary, after visiting and tasting our way through the three regions in Europe renowned for their fortified wines, there seemed to be less difference between the various fortified wines of Madeira then there had been between the types of Sherries, which are also categorized by sweetness. Starting from the dry Sercial, the semi-dry Verdelho, Bual medium, and the Malmsey which is sweet. The dry Madeira wines weren’t quite as dry as the dry Sherries and the sweet ones weren’t quite as sweet as either the sweet Sherries or the Ports. Ports seemed, to Savvy Sailing Girl’s palate, to be more complex with more depth and character. So if she could only pick one region and its fortified wines, it would be Oporto and Port wine. That said, she loved all three types of fortified wine, and happily, doesn’t need to choose… she can enjoy them all!