Funchal Wine Festival, Madeira (Wjarek/Shutterstock)
colonists considered Madeira to be the ideal warming drink for England’s cold, damp winters. Madeira soon became adopted by the English gentry. In the nineteenth century it became common practice for top-hatted church-going gentlemen to invite fellow parishioners home for Madeira and a slice of cake after Sunday church. However, two World Wars in the first half of the twentieth century changed social habits considerably. By the time I left school in 1955, Madeira had become 'old hat' and even something of a joke by the 1960s when Flanders and Swann sang "Have some Madeira, m'dear" every night at the Fortune Theatre. Notwithstanding its old-fashioned image, Madeira remains a wonderful wine and the Symington family has invested in making many improvements to its production. The best way to get to know Madeira is to go there. We found a tastefully modernised old manor
house called Quintinha São João (quintinhasaojoao. com), managed by staff who make their guests feel like part of the family. One of the highlights of our stay was inspecting the orchids and walking the Levada paths of the mountains. On a visit to Blandy’s Wine Lodge in the centre of Funchal, we tasted the four principal grapes of Madeira and sampled them at aged five, 10 and 15 years old. Sercial and Verdelho are most commonly taken as an aperitif, Bual and Malmsey as digestif. After careful resampling we took as our favourites the nutty dry Sercial and the elegant Bual. However, we liked the medium, richer Malmsey in the afternoon with a piece of cake, learning in the process that Madeira cake is never cut with a knife – it is rich and firm enough to be broken off by hand, as long as Health and Safety aren’t looking! So now I echo Flanders and Swann and call on you, too, to have some Madeira, my dears. www.sherbornetimes.co.uk | 61