Blandy's Wine Lodge - Funchal, Maderia

On our recent visit to Maderia we spent the day in Funchal happily wandering around soaking in the island life. Nestling amongst the many buildings housing bars, shops and restaurants we discovered Blandy's, a wine shop ... or so we thought.

We are not drinkers of sherry or sweet wine so although we have tasted Maderia wine before we had not heard of Blandy's. Entering the cobbled courtyard we amazed to discover it was actually where they made their wine .. and just how old the Wine Lodge was. 

Our tour and tasting took us through the old timber buildings learning so much about the wine as we travelled through time. Surprisingly we had heard some of the names before and as we moved through this stunning old Lodge we began to appreciate how special Maderia wine is. 

It all began in 1808 when John Blandy arrived from London, he moved to Maderia because of ill health and in 1811 began trading in wine with his brothers Thomas and George. He started producing this unique wine which was soon to be known all over the world.

John Blandy bought many small holdings which became Blandy's Wine Lodges, their structure making the perfect temperature for producing Maderia wine. The Wine Lodge in Funchal had high attics with high heat and humidity where the Maderia wine is aged, a very different way of aging to wine which is kept in cool cellers.

Maderia wine is made from a variety of grapes, most of which came from mainland Portugal, although Malmsey is from Crete. The grape varieties include:

Tinta Negra     Sercial    Verdelho   Terrantez    Buel    Malvasia (Malmsey)

There was so much to learn at the Wine Lodge, it was steeped in history with so many old beams, equipment and of course barrels. The smell in the cellar room was amazing, quite a surprise as we had gone upstairs to an attic not downstairs into a cellar.

After the tour we had a tasting of two very different wines, nothing like the Maderia wine we had previously tasted which had always been quite sweet. These wines were very complex, rich in flavours and varying in style. It was whilst tasting these that Hubby remember that Nelson was supposedly brought back in a barrel of Malmsey wine ... thankfully not the one we tasted!

It was lovely sitting in at the wooden tables in the old rooms surrounded by bottles of aged Maderia Wine dating back many years. So lovely we decided to stay a while and shared a four wine tasting with a cheeseboard. Each wine was matched to a cheese although we preferred the blue cheese with the oldest wine, it certainly opened our eyes, and palates. 

And to our surprise since returning home we have seen Blandy's in quite a few supermarkets although we have yet to add one to our drinks collection. I would certainly return to Blandy's if in Funchal again, you can have a tasting without the tour and so next time we'll try a different selection - thank you Blandy's for a great afternoon of discovering Maderia Wine.