1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

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The Vineyards and Wines of Madeira.

witli grand old wines, and tlie improvised galleries running round the walls immediately under the blaclrened rafters, where wine of fabulous antiquity, in bottles covered with dust and wound round aboutwith cobwebby festoons,is stowed away. To enumerate all the remarkable wines shown us at these stores is impossible; suffice it to say they comprised Cama de Lobos of different years, always full of character, sometimes even a little rich, though generally slightly pungent, and not unfrequently exceedingly potent. We remember, too, a delicate fine old Bual, an archaic Verdelho with some of the characteristics of a liqueur, a Bastardo combining a cei'tain sweetness with pecuhar freshness of flavour,a youthful and astringent Tinta,an aromatic Malmsey of fabulous value, and a fragrant luscious Moscatel, with other growths, which in flavour and bouquet ran through all the keys of the gamut. Another Portuguese shipper, holding a considerable stock of high-class Madeiras, is Senhor Henrique J. M. Camacho, who matures his wines principally in an| estufa do sol perched on the summit of one of his stores, and in which he obtains a temperature of150 deg. His exports are principally to England, Portugal, Brazil, and the United States, and his venerable- looking stores are situated in the western quarter of Eunchal. Among the curiosities which we were invited to taste were some very flne old Sao Martinhos, with a curious collection of high- class Buals from Oama de Lobos, Campanario, and Santo Antonio. Also a Ponta do Pargo from fifteen to twenty years old, powerful yet refined in flavour, a rare Bastardo, and a Malmsey—with a slight blend of Bual to give it character and roundness—in which"false, fleeting, perjured Clarence" might well have been content to drown. The firm ofViuva Abudarham 8Pilhos has its stores in the old EunchalPost Office,near Cossart, Gordon, and Oo.'s principal establishment. A lofty arched gateway leads to the armazens, forming a couple of floors, supported by a combination of massive arches and ponderous beams. The Campanarios of this firm are of a high class. One of 1871, which had been matured by six months' exposure to