A street in Funchal.Credit: Penny Watson
Penny Watson immerses herself in the proud wine history of this mountainous Portuguese island.
Fittingly on an island renowned for its fortified wine, I'm lying in a bath of red wine, the purple liquid making islands of my knees and lapping at my chin like I'm some kind of Greek goddess. True, these grapes - or, more precisely, grape skin and vine-leaf extracts - aren't the varieties found here on Madeira; they're pinotage grapes grown in South Africa's Stellenbosch wine region from where "vinotherapy" hails - but it all ties in rather nicely. Whether you imbibe it or bathe in it, wine is part of the Madeira experience.
Though most travellers have heard of Madeira, fewer can pinpoint it on a map. This could be due to its distance from its mother country, Portugal. Covering 741 square kilometres, the island, an autonomous region and part of an archipelago of the same name, sits in the Atlantic Ocean 600 kilometres west of Morocco and 850 kilometres south-west of Portugal.
It was discovered in 1419 by Portuguese explorers whose ship had blown off course. Instead of navigating the west coast of Africa they came upon this "pearl of the Atlantic", with forests, exotic flowers and wildlife on steep black volcanic mountain slopes. It was named Madeira, the Portuguese word for wood or timber.
The island's year-round mild climate suited Portuguese settlers, who relished the subtropical paradise close to the Mediterranean. Soon the island's fertile volcanic soil was turned to farming. The settlers' hand-tilled vineyards on small plots of land called poios (terraces) still cling to the mountains.
As with most fortified wines, madeira is topped up with grape brandy to keep it from spoiling. What makes the wine unique is its maturation process: the wine is warmed gently, traditionally by the heat of the sun. This method was discovered by another quirk of maritime fate. During the 17th and 18th centuries madeira was sold along trade routes in the Americas and Far East. When an unsold shipment was returned to the island, wine producers agreed the taste had improved markedly during the voyages in these temperate climes.
Back at the Vine hotel, in Madeira's capital, Funchal, I'm immersed in the wine theme. Here in the sensual burgundy-lit "vino spa", there is a menu of treatments that includes grape-seed facials, using crushed grape seeds to ''lift impurities'', grape-seed extract as the hydrating agent and grape-seed oil to add sheen to a full-body cleanse.
Upstairs, the guest floors have colours and decor suggesting four stages of wine production: green for spring, burgundy for vintage, grey for winter and brown for autumn. On the rooftop, one of Funchal's best restaurants, Uva (Portuguese for grape), is next to a purple-tiled infinity pool. The colour theme is overdone but the effect is memorable: an apparent waterfall of wine disappearing over the edge of the building.
It's a good vantage point from which to survey Funchal, a pretty city of 100,000 people. The view spans terracotta rooftops, cliffs and cruise ships docked in the port. When torrential rain hit the island in February, floods and mudslides killed more than 30 people and caused devastation in Funchal and the island's smaller towns. In the higher parts of the city and in the mountain village of Serra de Agua, recovery work is still under way but evidence of the tragedy is minimal. The city centre and most of the surrounding countryside are conducting business as usual.
A walk around the old town reveals teetering terraces with crumbling roof tiles and wooden shutters, old churches with birds' nests in their spires and wonderful mosaic footpaths, reminiscent of those in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon.
Another way to see the city is by the cable car that transports tourists from the harbour across town to Monte, the highest point in the city. The best way down is an altogether different route: basket sledges, once used to ferry people and goods down the city's cobbled streets, are now a thrill for tourists who can take the two-kilometre, 10-minute ride from Monte to the city.
The history of Madeira's wine is well documented in Blandy's wine museum. A quick lesson reveals the four main grape styles in ascending order of sweetness: seical, verdelho, boal and malvasia. You don't have to walk far for a taste test. Funchal's restaurants routinely serve verdelho accompanied by steaming rounds of bolo de caco, delicious wood-fired garlic bread. Seafood is another mainstay on the menu but rather than the Portuguese favourite, bacalao (cod), Madeirans prefer espada (black scabbard), a meaty deep-sea fish unique to the region.
There's an active counterpoint to any time spent eating and drinking. In the past decade Madeira has gained a reputation as a walker's paradise, with peripatetic adventurers from across Europe arriving to walk the island's 2500-kilometre labyrinth of criss-crossing trails. About 200 of the trails, spanning 1500 kilometres, run alongside one of the island's other great treasures - its ancient levadas, the irrigation channels designed to bring water from the mountain tops to low-lying agricultural plots.
Portuguese settlers dug the first levadas about 500 years ago. They are still used for irrigation but their main purpose now is to access stunning mountainous scenery and protected natural areas, such as the indigenous laurisilva (laurel) forest, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site and widely considered one of the world's
rarest forests. Despite the floods, only one or two in the vast network of levada walks are reported to be out of bounds for walkers.
The hard part is working out which trail to take. One day I'm walking along the cliff-hugging ledges on the south-east tip of the island; the next I'm under the canopy of a laurel forest. Tomorrow I'll have my head in the clouds on a walk from one marvellous mountain peak to the next.
At the end of a day's walking, there's nothing quite so restorative as afternoon tea served on the balcony of the wonderfully colonial Reid's Palace Hotel, overlooking the harbour in Funchal. Or a walker could take a dip in the sea baths of Porto Moniz, where a break wall softens the blow of waves that have been carving at the black rock for centuries. Then, of course, there's the red-wine bath. Just don't be tempted to drink the bathwater.
Penny Watson travelled courtesy of Tourism Madeira.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
There are a number of ways to Funchal Airport on Madeira. One of the cheapest options is to buy two fares, (3hr 30 min) to London and on to Madeira. Malaysia Airlines has a fare for about $2000 flying nonstop to Kuala Lumpur (8hr), and then nonstop to London (13hr 30 min). TAP has a fare for about $205 from London to Madeira (4hr).
Walking there
The Madeira Walking Festival is held each January and hosts guided trail walks; see madeiraislandswalkingfestival.com. Mario Oliveira is a private tour guide with 15 years' walking experience; see www.marioliveira.net. See also www.madeiratourism.com.
Staying there
The Vine Hotel has rooms from €221 ($308) a night, breakfast included. At Rua dos Aranhas, 27-A; see www.hotelthevine.com.
Quintinha Sao Joao is a boutique "mansion" hotel with 46 garden-view rooms, from €66 a person, breakfast included. At Rua da Levada de Sao Joao, 4; see www.quintinhasaojoao.com.
Eating there
In the old town, Gaviao Novo serves verdelho aperitifs and excellent seafood, including espada, or black scabbard. At Rua Santa Maria, 131, Funchal; +351 291 229 238.
Adega da Quinta serves succulent espetada - grilled meat on long skewers hung in the middle of the table. At Rua Jose Joaquim da Costa, Estreito de Camara de Lobos; +351 291 91 05 30.
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