Old Blandy's Wine Lodge & The Sacred Art Museum

Again, I know that I have been to both places on previous trips to Madeira, but they are two places that really make me smile. Blandys’ because every time I think of it, I always remember the group of Scandinavian tourists, sitting in the Max Romer Try & Buy bar, slowly getting more and more plastered.

On the way into the Blandy’s Wine lodge – more correctly known as Adega Sao Francisco (I think) there are a series of wooden plaques with descriptions of the various wines on it.

(Apologies for the slight blurring in the subsequent photos – my arm was starting to ache!) This is then followed by:

This is then followed by:

Followed by:

And finally:

The main wine lodge is up some steps, and as you approach, there is a large banner proclaiming that this building is the Blandy’s Wine lodge.

Then, it’s into the main building. There are several tours that run, depending on the time of year, as they run a harvest tour the end of August to the beginning of September. (Ok – when I was there, it was the Vintage tour for which you paid €25 to try old wine, or the normal wine lodge tour that told you about the production of Madeira wine, and that was €5. I opted for the standard tour, as I am not a wine enthusiast by any stretch of the imagination, so it would have been a waste of money for me.

Whilst I was waiting for the tour to start, I made the most of the peace and quiet to get some photographs of the vintage room.

This room is incredible. The wines are stored in cabinets that seem to be fronted by chicken wire, and the atmosphere is something else.

Storage in the Vintage room

Vintage wines (without the chicken wire in the way!)

Vintage Sercial in the Vintage room

The Vintage room

Then it was on to the main tour itself. The guide as per normal, was really enthusiastic, and made sure that the tour party was aware of the heritage of the building – it had been used as a hospital and a jail, as well as being a monastery.

The first room that we entered was the canteiro room. This is where the wines are kept in American Oak barrels for a number of years and are heated by the sun shining on the building. Some of the wines in the room had been in there longer than I am old!

Casks in the Canteiro room

The next room was the Vat room – where the previous year’s juice (or very young wine) was stored prior to going into the canteiro room. The vats were made from Brazilian Satinwood, as this didn’t impart any flavour to the juice / wine before it made its migration to the American Oak casks.

Brazilian Satinwood vats - the grape variety is stencilled onto the vat

If a wine is to be declared a vintage, it must remain in the barrel for a minimum of 20 years, and the master vintner must have agreed that it is a good year for the particular grape variety. Then, four bottles are sent to the Madeira wine institute, who give it the final say so (apparently one bottle is tested to ensure the quality of the wine, two bottles are put into the archives and the fourth bottle? The guide always jokes that it is drunk!)

The tour always ends in the Max Romer try and buy bar, where I was able to try a 5 year old Bual and 10 year old Malmsey. I have to admit, neither is to my taste, but it is interesting to see if my pallet has changed from the previous year (it never seems to!)

The sales area of the Max Romer Try & Buy bar

The other place that I adore is the Sacred Art Museum. Again, I know I’ve mentioned this when I’ve been posting about my trip last year, but it’s one of those museums that really makes an impact on you.

Unfortunately, I only managed one photograph this time (and that was because I was standing in the street to take it!)

But, despite this, the museum remains one of my favourite places to visit, as the collection of Flemish and Portuguese art is some of the best that I have seen, and I really wish that I could get a proper guide book that gave all the information about this fascinating museum.

Ah well, guess I should call this quits for now – I’m starting to fall asleep at my computer!

Back tomorrow, if I get the chance.

Karen

Now some things you hold on to - and some you just let go
Seems like the ones that you can't have
Are the ones that you want most