Portuguese term for special dessert wines from Madeira or Setúbal, which have undergone the traditional and formerly customary journey by ship in the tropics. The special type of production, which is also known as Madeirisation due to its typical taste and colour, came about purely by chance in the 17th century (at the latest), when Madeira wines were exported by ship from the capital Funchal to South America (Brazil) and other overseas colonies such as Angola, Mozambique and Macau, alongside other goods. In order to maintain a certain sweetness and increase the shelf life of these wines, they were fortified with alcohol to stop fermentation. This was nothing out of the ordinary and is also known from port wine and Spanish sherry.
Invention of the process
Sometimes the Madeira wines could not be marketed and were returned, so they crossed the equator twice. It was realised that the longer the journey took and the longer the ship spent in a tropical climate, the better the wine became. The rocking motion of the ship (as was wrongly assumed at the time), the salty sea air, which came into contact with the wine through barrels that were not completely sealed, but above all the hot climate and extreme temperature fluctuations contributed to oxidative processes and thus to the typical flavour. For this reason, many ships were now loaded with the wine and sent to the East Indies and back for the sole purpose of producing Madeira.
Vinhos de torna-viagem
The wines were called "Vinhos de torna-viagem" in Portuguese (meaning "wines make a journey") or also "Vinho da roda" (roda = to turn/rotate) and is also documented on the labels of old Madeira bottles (abbreviation TVE). For a while, Madeira barrels were made to rock using mechanical devices in order to avoid the expensive and time-consuming journey by ship. However, this did not achieve any improvement in quality. There are still TVE Madeiras today, but they tend to be kept as showpieces. Such almost priceless ones from the period 1870 to 1890 are stored in the cellars of the Fonseca company, as well as some other producers.
Storage in the lodges
When the actual cause of the special character of the wines was recognised, the wines were stored in the attics of the lodges (warehouses), exposing them to extreme heat and temperature fluctuations. The environmental conditions of the voyage were thus imitated. The wines produced in this way are called Canteiro (Vinho canteiro) and are naturally much cheaper (Canteiro literally means "bed" or "flower bed", but this is also the name of the storage racks for the barrels). Today, these wines are exposed to the heat in cellars, but only a few producers still produce them due to the complexity involved.
Experiment
The Portuguese navigator Pedro Áalvarez Cabral (1468/1469-1518/1520) is considered one of the discoverers of Brazil. However, the Spaniard Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (1462-1514) is also mentioned two years earlier. In any case, Cabral reached the Brazilian coast in 1500. To celebrate the 500th anniversary of the discovery of this land, the aforementioned Fonseca company carried out an interesting project. The Setúbal DOC wine was released from the 2000 vintage onwards using the traditional method of a three-month voyage. At a wine tasting, the wine was judged by experts to be "rounder, softer" and with complex flavours, just like in the old days.
