Madeira

Madeira is a beautiful island located off the coast of Portugal famed for its dazzling array of fortified wines. Discovered by happy accident, it undergoes a fairly brutal ageing process which bizarrely renders the final wine not only highly delicious, but also as age-worthy as just about any wine in existence. 18th century trans-Atlantic voyages saw barrels of astringent wine fortified with a bucket or two of local brandy, a process these days replicated with long barrel ageing in specially constructed hot stores called Estufas. This process of repeated heating and cooling, a sure death knell for any other wine, produces wines that run from aperitif to digestif, with broad swathes of intense flavour always tempered by a keen blade of uplifting acidity.