Madeira grapes

Question 1

Sercial

Answer 1

• extra dry or dry
• lightest in colour and body
• notes of citrus peel and nuts
• Sercial (esgana cão on continent - dog strangler” and refers to the grape’s mouth-puckering acidity)
  white
• late ripening (often last picked, eps. cool and highest placed sites where it can have lowest required pot. abv)
• up to 800 meters asl
  plantings small because
  
  • resistant to powdery, susceptible to grey rot
  • can suffer from poor fruit set
    small plantings

Question 2

Verdelho

Answer 2

• medium dry
• usually more RS = gives it more body and a rounder texture than Sercial
• slight sweetness also gives impression of sweeter flavours - candied fruits
• may be slightly darker in colour than Sercial
• slight honeyed and smoky note
• 2nd most planted vinifera (most planted white)
• grown up to 400m
• susceptible to grey rot, coulure, downy mildew, powdery mildew

Question 3

Boal

Answer 3

• medium sweet
• fuller bodied and sweeter than Verdelho
• colour is darker than Verdelho
  Flavours: caramel, chocolate and candied nuts, slightly smoky
• white
  *same as for white Port Malvasia Fina
• best on warm, low alt. sites in S. of island (below 300m)
• susceptible to drought
  needs irrigation
• low yielding

Question 4

Malvasia

Answer 4

• umbrella name for unrelated varieties (IVBAM don’t distinguish them)
  
  • M. Candida
    (white) historically most important for Madeira (prized for hq)
    susceptible to powdery mildew (so limited plantings)
  • M. de São Jorge
    most planted M. on Madeira
    reliably h, yielding with h. sugar and h. acidity
• v. susceptible to grey rot
• main variety for Malmsey
• below 150 meters - usually close to the sea
• predominantly on the south coast
• one of the last grapes to be harvested.
• sweet (sweetest but balanced by h. acidity)
• full-bodied
• often brown in colour
• Flavours: raisins and caramel

Question 5

Terrantez

Answer 5

• medium dry or medium sweet
• can have h. RS - always some delicacy
• Aromas: citrus peel, caramel and sometimes floral notes
• now promoted by government by €1.30 subsidy per kilogram of Terrantez fruit harvested
• v. limited plantings
• susceptible to powdery mildew, botrytis bunch rot
  so picked soon after reaches 9% pot. abv

Question 6

Bastardo

Answer 6

red
used for medium-sweet wines

Question 7

Tinta Negra

Answer 7

any sweetness
since 2015, can also be varietally labelled