For The Love Of Port

I not sure if people here are familiar with the Google's efforts to digitize the world's books, but its worth taking a look. Just for kicks I searched for "Madeira Island" and came up with some interesting books. Due to copyright laws, many books are not "fully viewable", that is, some pages are hidden... but you can go to the Advanced Search feature and filter by books that are "fully viewable".

It turns out that many of the "fully viewable" books are older ones (many from the 1800s), but it's fun to read such old descriptions of Madeira... and the illustrations are fascinating.

For example, check out "The Madeira Islands", published in 1896:
http://books.google.com/books?id=M1AYAAAAYAAJ

Marco, did you find any such books devoted entirely to Madeira wine instead of the region? I would welcome an opportunity to download and print something like that, very much.

Thanks,
Ray

I didn't find "fully viewable" books on just the wines of Madeira, although I've just started browsing today.

Check out the search engine and see what you find... sometimes it takes you on interesting tangents.

Thanks Marco I'll give it a shot. This could be fun too. :)

Ray

Thanks Marco, I tried this and I finally came up with a source for "dead flies in Madeira"-story. I will post this soon.
Peter

Another interesting book... "A Treatise on the Origin, Nature, and Varieties of Wine " from 1872.

It has a chapter on Ports starting on page 672. I dig the vintage chart for the years 1840-1866.

http://books.google.com/books?id=48soAAAAYAAJ

Thank you very much. That book is on my desktop now, I want to have a look at that vintage chart too! :)

Thanks Marco.

When anyone reading this thread finds a really interesting article or great link, please include it here or if it is really worthwhile, begin a brand new thread. Thanks!

Another interesting book... "Madeira Old and New" from 1909.

There's a chapter on the British Factory in Madeira on Page 74.
http://books.google.com/books?id=R4pCAAAAIAAJ

Marco D. wrote:Another interesting book... "A Treatise on the Origin, Nature, and Varieties of Wine " from 1872.

It has a chapter on Ports starting on page 672. I dig the vintage chart for the years 1840-1866.

http://books.google.com/books?id=48soAAAAYAAJ

I just printed out these pages about Port and Madeira and will read them later when I have more time. But PLEASE post more links here as you find them. The history of these old book is facinating and very educational.