page_title: Madeira wine
section_title: Winemaking
hierarchical_section_title: Madeira wine / Viticulture / Winemaking
caption_attribution_description: Portuguese fortified wine made from the Sercial grape in Madeira
context_page_description: Madeira is a fortified wine made on the Portuguese Madeira Islands, off the coast of Africa. Madeira is produced in a variety of styles ranging from dry wines which can be consumed on their own as an aperitif to sweet wines usually consumed with dessert. Cheaper cooking versions are often flavoured with salt and pepper for use in cooking, but these are not fit for consumption as a beverage.
  The islands of Madeira have a long winemaking history, dating back to the Age of Exploration when Madeira was a standard port of call for ships heading to the New World or East Indies. To prevent the wine from spoiling, neutral grape spirits were added. On the long sea voyages, the wines would be exposed to excessive heat and movement which transformed the flavour of the wine. This was discovered by the wine producers of Madeira when an unsold shipment of wine returned to the islands after a round trip.
  Today, Madeira is noted for its unique winemaking process which involves oxidizing the wine through heat and aging.
context_section_description: The initial winemaking steps of Madeira start out like most other wines: grapes are harvested, crushed, pressed, and then fermented in either stainless steel or oak casks. The grape varieties destined for sweeter wines – Bual and Malvasia – are often fermented on their skins to leach more phenols from the grapes to balance the sweetness of the wine. The more dry wines – made from Sercial, Verdelho, and Negra Mole – are separated from their skins prior to fermentation. Depending on the level of sweetness desired, fermentation of the wine is halted at some point by the addition of neutral grape spirits.
  The wines undergo the estufagem aging process to produce Madeira's distinctive flavor.
  Colourings such as caramel coloring have been used in the past to give some consistency (see also whiskey), although this practice is decreasing.
caption: A dry Madeira made from the Sercial grape.
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