Dedicated to the wonderful island of Madeira, its wines, its wonderful cuisine and its welcoming people.
Remembering old Madeira wine labels
Old Madeira wine labels
This page is a collection of wine labels I have curated on my travels around the island of Madeira.
Listrao Branco. A very rare wine produced by Artur De Barros e Sousa, now no longer operating. The company is now part of its neighbour D’Oliveira. The label indicates that the grapes were grown on Porto Santo and the wine was canteiro aged.
Cossarts Bual 15-year-old label, duo centenary collection of this famous old firm Cossart and Gordon. Cossart and Gordon Madeira wines can be purchased at the Blandy outlet in Funchal.
A Borges old label from a wonderful company still producing excellent wines. This is a label for a dry style of Madeira wine with a lovely backdrop of Funchal harbour.
Another Borges owned wine with more beautiful artwork making for a delightful label in my view for the J.H. Goncalves brand. Oxen were a very traditional form of transport power in Madeira in years gone by.
Another Borges label: the Henriques label. Nice but no clues as to what is in the bottle!
Blandy’s rainwater (an old label). A rather stylish label I feel, pronouncing the wine to be very superior and a good 19 percent alcohol by volume.
Miles Madeira is a famous wine now along with Cossart and Gordon and Leacock part of the Blandy family of Madeira wines and still bottled today, in a stylish new label. We know this is a Sercial and that it is a dry wine.
This label is Leacock’s old logo and certainly not seen anymore. It tells us little about what is in the bottle, but we learn that Leacocks was established in 1760.
This Freitas Martins.Caldeira Madeira wine label is from some time ago, a company about which I know very little, suffice to say it was taken over by Henriques and Henriques in 1960 or possibly joined the Madeira wine company. (see: www.for theloveofport) Anyway, we do know that the wine in the bottle is: A malvazia, also known as a malmsey.
Old Verdelho label from Justino Henriques, now much better known as Justino’s. The label tells us this is a medium dry wine: Meio seco, but it is uncertain if the wine in the bottle is a Verdelho.
Malmsey Rich Madeira wine label under the “Good Company” strap line from Cossart and Gordon who we learn from the label are the oldest shippers of Madeira wine, being established in 1745.
Cossart Rainwater Madeira: An old label for the US market, under the Thirteen colonies sobriquet. History tells us that the Declaration of Independence was toasted with Madeira wine. The pale medium dry style of Rainwater was very popular in the USA. This style is still made today and very good it is too.
Blandy’s old style label for Bual, under the Duke of Cumberland sobriquet. The “Duke” range of Madeira wines are still produced today and remain very popular indeed.
H M Borges seco Madeira label. One of my favourite styles of label, with a tiled background for this dry wine, my first ever bottle of Madeira had this style of label.
A Solera wine label from Blandy’s. A modern label for an old wine. Solera produced Madeira wines have died out now, largely due to Portugal joining the EU, when this style of wine production of Madeira was not recognised.
Another modern label for an old wine: A Sercial from 1910. Old wines tend to have stencilled labels, so I am unsure of the provenance of this label.
Barros e Sousa label (drinks mat?) offering 1000 euros reward if their wine is not produced using the canteiro process. This company (now no longer making wine) was fiercely proud that they only made Madeira wine using the canteiro process.
