Regarding the future of the MadeiraWineGuide

[Peter Reutter]

Dear fellow Madeira wine lovers!

Years ago I created the http://www.MadeiraWineGuide.com website to put some kind of a Madeira wine knowledge base on the web. My twin brother was kind enough to run this website from a server in his basement and it was later joined with the ForTheLoveOfPort-Forum.

Over the last years however the MadeiraWineGuide has stagnated and I never had the time to put some new content into it or to post any updates. A demanding job, my family, other interests, they all wanted their share and so I had long thought about ending the MWG.

In a couple of months now my brother will move to another place and this would mean to put the MWG on a new server, with a new ISP, with a new publishing platform. With family, job, some health issues, this would simply be to much of an effort for me. So probably by late summer, but certainly by the end of 2018, the MWG will be shut down. However I would like the collected knowledge to live on, so please feel free to download, copy, use everything that has ever been posted on the MWG, as long as it is possible. And might I ask you to state the source as "MWG".

I enjoyed our conversations about Madeira wine, I even more enjoyed doing some serious Madeira wine tasting with some of you. Especially the tastings in Seattle and the magnificent TTT in NYC I will treasure for the rest of my life. I thank all of you for your interest in the MWG over the years, for wonderful bottles and the lively discussions about Madeira and other topics.

I wish you all the best and a good glass of Madeira wine
Peter Reutter

[Eric Ifune]

Peter,
Sorry to hear this.
You will still show up here from time to time I hope.

[Alan Gardner]

Thanks for all the good work Peter.
But, nothing ever really disappears on the web (as many people have found out to their cost).

Many/most websites are archived irregularly by what is affectionately known as 'The Wayback Machine' (or more formally the Internet Archive).

The Madeira Wine Guide site was most recently archived on 2017.12.03 (the first archive was 2003.02.12 and there have been 227 captures in total).
I've checked several links (all worked) from the title page, so it appears your work will 'live forever' (or as long as the Internet survives) regardless of whether there is a currently accessible site.

Here's the reference to find history on ANY website
https://web.archive.org


Here's the direct link for the Dec 3, 2017 capture

https://web.archive.org/web/20171203103 ... guide.com/

[Steve Pollack]

I'm also sorry to hear this, Peter. I've always enjoyed your site; thanks for all the work you've put into it.

[Roy Hersh]

Hi Peter,

I am just back from Portugal and have sent you an email to further discuss.

Take good care,

Roy

[Reidar Andersen]

Dear Peter,

I have not commented yet, due to lack of right words. An old song: «I had a dream». I wish there is a publisher here among our madeira frends who could print it out and sell It to us here. At a vey good price which leaves a good reward to you..

Then we can have a meeting with Roy, you and the gang, I’ll bring 1802,,

Reidar

Am in Sri Lanka for holiday now , wonderful curry but dont match with madeira

[Peter Reutter]

Thank you all for your kind answers, your praise, your helpful comments, your feedback. It is so good to hear that the effort put into the MWG has been somewhat appreciated.
It is way to early to say something definitive, but there is hope for a solution to keep the knowledge contained in the MWG alive and accessible for everyone interested.
I promise I will keep you updated of the development!

Best regards
Peter

[Matt K]

Has anything been done to secure the content of MWG?

I've found wayback is less reliable than one would hope - it seems to not crawl every page on many sites so it can miss content.

It's on a blog platform so it seems like it would be relatively easy to move to a new host, alternatively can the site be output to some file format which could then be uploaded here or some similar approach?

Ideally the content could get moved here and 301 redirects used so that some page rank with google is maintained.

[Roy Hersh]

The answer to Matt's initial question is YES.

[Eric Ifune]

Glad to see Peter's writings here.

[Roy Hersh]

More news to follow within 10 days.

[Roy Hersh]

Well, the official news will be released this weekend in the newsletter. It has already been inked, but will not be sent out yet.

[Roy Hersh]

Well for those of you who are big fans of Madeira Wine Guide and its founder, Dr. Wolf Peter Reutter, I am sure you saw the big news in the December newsletter.

The work involved in re-creating the photos and original written works by Peter is an on-going project, but we have maintained the copyrights and Peter and his brother Hans will retain the ownership rights as I suggested to them. Regardless, the content is now available on the FTLOP homepage "button" so you can access a load of the material, while we continue to rebuild that site and add new content to it, once the basic work is completed.

I hope there will be ongoing views of that site and am thrilled that we were able to do justice for MWG and Peter (and Hans!).

[Eric Ifune]

[Roy Hersh]

Peter has a long road ahead of him, but I'd like to hope that the worst is in the rear view mirror. When he has healed and is able to consume alcohol again ... which is not a given ... I will organize a fantastic Madeira event here in Seattle and have him come and join us. His brother lives close by, so it should be very doable.

Reidar, I really hope to be able to give you a long heads up, as I am really hoping to try that 1802 at least one more time in my life. I do know one person who scored a bunch from Maliner's cellar (a small slice of Madeiras which) were put on the auction block a couple of years ago. Dr. Bob had a slew of those 1802's and I'd love to know what he paid for them originally.

[Reidar Andersen]

Thanks Roy for the work on Peters website...

I have also been in contact with Peter recently. Will gladly come to Seattle with 1802 T.. Still have my three bottles... Get well Peter.. And then we all

[Steve Pollack]

Hoping for the best possible outcome, Peter.

[Roy Hersh]

There will be a big celebration here once Peter is well enough to join us. I am happy to wait, as his recuperation will take a while. There was a recent step backwards in progress. But Peter remains focused and positive in his attitude, yet the fight is not over yet.

Keep Peter in your prayers. His spirits will be lifted by knowing that many here are sending him good karma, considering all that he has done to improve healthy outcomes for others ... in his line of work as a surgeon!

[Peter Reutter]

Dear fellow Madeira lovers,

it has been a while now, since I last posted here on the FTLOP-forum, so I wanted to give you some update about various topics. I also wanted to offer some explanation about what happend and why the future of the MWG was becoming an issue in the first place.

But before I do that, I wanted to say a big THANK YOU! After I told you that I had decided to pull the plug on the MadeiraWineGuide, a lot of positive feedback came back to me, offering all sorts of assistance, help, support, it was (and still is) truly amazing. But more important, many people expressed their concern over my health issues that made me abandon the MWG, supported me with kind words, prayers and all the little things that are suddenly important, when you feel that your life is crumbling to pieces. So again: THANK YOU!

The first good news is, that Roy and his fabulous team secured all the contents of the MWG here at FTLOP. Dear Roy, I can't thank you and your team of Glenn, Mario, Andy, David and Stewart as well as my brother Hans enough for saving all this information about Madeira wine. I can only imagine the effort of doing all this technical wizardry. It took years collecting all this and to have it in the haven of FTLOP now is a great relief to me. It is just good to know that the MWG is safe and well.

The second good news is, that personally, I am quite well too. I had been diagnosed with advanced head/neck cancer and things looked quite grim at first. But so far my case has worked out very, very well. I have had a few minor setbacks, but things went well when it really mattered and I am quite optimistic that I will be around for more years to come. I even went back to work, mainly because I love my job and it gives me such a sense of fulfillment that I would rather go to work than sit at home. Some things don’t go as smoothly as they did before, but again, I am happy if not amazed how well things worked out. It wasn't an all bad experience, I can honestly say that.

The only thing I am definitely not happy about is the fact, that I am supposed to drink as little alcohol as possible. This will limit my consumption to very little wine and almost no Madeira wine, what a pity. But I also feel that I can take measures to minimize damage, should I ever attend another Madeira wine tasting. So, I certainly haven’t ruled this out. In fact, there are 3 or 4 bottles that I would like to taste in my life and what better way to do so with other Madeira wine lovers, so we can appreciate the wines together? Hmmm, I guess I am just writing these lines to make Roy include me in the next big Madeira tasting

Anyway, I wanted to let you know, that your kind thoughts and good wishes and prayers meant a lot to me and really helped and still do. So (certainly not for the last time) THANK YOU and I do hope that I will meet you at another Madeira tasting some day.
With kind regards
Peter Reutter