Blandy’s Madeira wines
Blandy’s, part of the Madeira Wine company is the most prominent and popular of all the wine lodges in Funchal, with its excellent visitor centre in a former monastery Adegas de São Francisco offering conducted tours a tasting room and shop.
Here you will find wines from the Madeira Wine Company, that is a long standing amalgamation of the Anglo-Portuguese Madeira wine producers: Blandy’s, Cossart Gordon, Leacock’s and Miles.
The most prominent and popular of all the wine lodges in Funchal, with its excellent visitor centre in a former monastery offering conducted tours a tasting room and shop.
Blandy’s has one of the largest ranges of aged Madeira on sale and available to taste. The tour of the Bodega is excellent and the events Blandy produces for the annual Madeira wine festival are some of the best.
One to buy: Well several if you visit the Bodega or the airport shop you will be spoilt for choice, I love the Blandy’s Rainwater for its lightness and freshness, Leacock St.John’s is excellent for a value for money wine, Alvada an intriguing blend and Blandy’s produce some excellent Colheita wines as well. The Duke range are perhaps the most well known and are worth trying if you are new to Madeira wines.
There is of course a huge range of older wines available from Blandy’s.
In this video the legendary wine maker Francisco Albuquerque talks about the history and wines of The Madeira wine company. Francisco outlines his and the company’s wine making intentions and philosophy as well as discussing some attributes that make Madeira wine unique with its extraordinary ability to pair with foods that normal table wines cannot cope with.
The video ends with a toast given to us the viewers, with a 1980 vintage Sercial Madeira wine. How cool is that.
You can read more about the team making these wines here
Here is another video about Blandy’s and their history.