Boal vs. Bual, the discovery of the truth

[Roy Hersh]

It is not an easy determination to make because there are some who espouse that Bual was the correct spelling in Portuguese on the island of Madeira. But this is not correct. Boal actually represents MANY grapes that are grown all over Portugal and have different genus' which were not fully understood until the late 1980s when a French scientist went to Portugal to try to make heads or tails of the indigenous grapes of the country. This is a similar scenario with Malvasia too. Malvasia is the correct spelling in Portuguese, and Malvazia is the English version, with Malmsey being what the wine was called (theoretically from the Malvasia grape) in England throughout the past few centuries.

But one Madeira grape at a time. Up until 1993 the Boal grape (Portuguese name) that appeared on bottles of Madeira was made up of only a small percentage of Boal (or even Bual = English spelling). Instead, it primarily consisted of the most widely planted grape on Madeira, the Tinta Negro Mole. Many people don't know about this facet of Madeira lore, which is actually, pretty recent history there. Lots of books on this topic pre-1990 are just plain wrong. This was all sorted out finally by the IVV, which is easier in English, as the Institute of Vines and Wine.

The genus for the Boal grape is believed to be Boal Cachudo (or Boal Commum) which is identical in DNA to the Malvasia Fina grape. Amazing to me when I first did the research. Today, bottles labeled Boal or Bual really are made from at least 85% Boal Cachudo grapes, which astonishingly make up only 1% of all grapes planted on the island. There is less than 200 tons harvested of the Boal Cachudo on the island each year.

Thanks to Alex Liddell and Richard Mayson for making this plain.