Are there any table wines of note produced in Madeira?

[Marco D.]

With the Douro producing excellent "still wines", I'm surprised nothing seems to be coming out of Madeira. Has anybody seen/tasted any table wines from Madeira that are note-worthy? Perhaps the weather is just not right?

[Reidar Andersen]

Not really anything.

Blandy's have their Alvada brand. Shame on me, I have never even tried to taste it during my many viits. Will next time in October.


Reidar

[pgwerner]

Alvada is not a table wine, but a 5-year-old Malmsey/Bual blend. I don't know about Norway, but over here its very common, sold in supermarkets – nothing you'd have to wait for a trip to Madeira for.

Alvada is nothing to write home about. Its sold in 500 ml bottles and is rather overpriced for a 5-year Madeira. (For off-sweet Madeiras, I much prefer the Henriques 10-year Malmsey.)

Peter

[Reidar Andersen]

I got a bit mixed up in my A's at MWC. Of course what I meant was Atlantis, rose tablewine from MWC. Have not tasted it, but will.

[Paul Day]

As I understand it, the aim of recent attempts to produce table wine is to supply a proportion of the local market, say 10% or so, rather than having to import 100%. The production of table wine is actually more profitable than making madeira. The idea is not to produce grand wines for export.

There are some successful whites (chiefly Verdelho and Verdelho/Arnsburger blends) and more recently reds and roses (mainly Tinta Negra Mole, with some CS and Merlot). The reds took longer to get right, because it was difficult to make TNM ripen sufficiently until improvements in trellising.

From the wines I have had, I would recommend trying Vinho Madeirense in situ: it isn't too expensive and makes a change from the usual mainland choices.

[Roy Hersh]

I had the chance to try a handful of native Madeira table wines. I am not sure if I took notes, but will look back to see. I do remember that they were tasty but nothing I'd seek out if they were exported. Then again, that is not the aim. It is a very young industry and just getting some steam. Export markets probably would have little interest (think of Douro wines 30 years ago). It will probably take more time to get the table wines to a higher level of quality, but this is a very small segment of an already small overall production of drinking wine that comes from the island. Of course there is a lot that reaches export that is still used for cooking, but that old image has been broken in most cases.

[Moses Botbol]

Alvada is nothing to write home about. Its sold in 500 ml bottles and is rather overpriced for a 5-year Madeira. (For off-sweet Madeiras, I much prefer the Henriques 10-year Malmsey.)

I tried this last night and found it to be better than "nothing to write home about." Sure, it is just a blend of Malmsey and Bual 5 years in a pretty bottle, but it is a welcome blend that should have broad appeal.

This is a good step for Blandys to expand their market. I find Blandys 5 years to be better than some of the other offerings common in around New England. It's certainly no "deal", but compared to other bottles on the shelf for $17.00, it's hard to pass up.

I was suprised to see RWC's branded Madeiras at my local college party keg liquor store too.

[Peter Reutter]

The simple answer is: NO!
They mainly started producing table wine to avoid costly imports for the tourist's demands. I admit some are good drinking wines and go along well with their local food, but that is it.
Best
Peter

[Heather Hathwell]

There's a red table wine made high in the hills above Seixal (north coast) that is served in the restaurant up there. It is not sold in other parts of the island, or at least not when I was last there 2 years ago (although my friends were able to buy some to go, using a jug). As other posters have mentioned, fine for having with local food (oh, and the espetada at that place!) but nothing very special at this stage of the game.

I also happened to notice that some commercial bottles were being sold in Diogo's (for something like 14 euros) that were marked as originating in Seixal. I believe both red and white wine. Not the same producer, but from the same general part of the island.

[Peter Reutter]

From the MadeiraWineGuide, chapter "Drinks and Food" in the "Guide to Madeira Island" part:

Madeira Table Wine
Since there were no real table wines besides the Atlantis wines of the MWC, tourists often drank wines from the portuguese mainland instead. This resulted in the anual import of 6.000.000 litres of table wine. So a new regulation was passed in 1999 and 2002 creating a Madeira VQPRD region. Since then a number of companies have started with the production of table wine. The following list is from the official IVM website at http://www.sra.pt/ivm/default.asp

Florinda Gomes Araújo
The commercial brand of this producer is known as “Casa da Vinha”, being a VQPRD white Madeira Wine. The grapes produced are mainly Verdelho, from the area of Estreito de Câmara de Lobos, and produced in the wine cellar at Sao Vicente.

João Mendes Sociedade Unipessoal, Lda.
This vine grower has farms in Arco de S. Jorge and Ribeira de S. Jorge, growing the white vine varieties of Verdelho and Arnsburger and the red varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The wines of this Madeira VQPRD are called “Quinta do Moledo” and “Rocha Branca”.

The Madeira Wine Company S.A.
For some years this company has commercialized a white wine of the Verdelho variety originally from the north coast, and a rosé wine from the Tinta Negra Mole vine variety produced in Câmara de Lobos and Campanário.

Torcaz – Produção e Comercialização de Vinhos, Lda.
The producer of this Madeira V.Q.P.R.D., chose to produce only red wine, from the Tinta Negra Mole grape and labelled by the name "Torcaz".

Seiçal – Sociedade de Produtores de Wine do Seixal, Lda.
This wine is produced by a group of producers in the area of Seixal who created an association for this purpose.
The white “Seiçal 2003” wine won first prize in the 1st edition of the Madeira Wine Show .

Ricardo França – Sociedade Unipessoal, Lda.
This producer has vine growing areas in Ponta Delgada and Boaventura. He produces a white wine mainly from the Verdelho and Arnsburger varieties and a red from the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot varieties. Ricardo França is the producer of “Enxurros” Wine, VQPRD “Madeirense” and “Terras Madeirenses” Regional Wine.

Vinhos Justino Henriques & Filhos, Lda.
Cancelas Tinto (red) was the name of the “Terras Madeirenses” Madeira regional wine produced by this company. It was first commercialized in the year of 2004 and in 2005 the company’s wines, both red and white, started to be sold under the name "Colombo".

Reis da Cunha – Vinhos Madeira Soc. Unip., Lda.
This company started to produce wine in 2005, from the Arnsburger and Malvasia vine varieties. The grapes of this Madeira VQPRD are produced in the area of São Jorge.