For The Love Of Port

I definitely store them upright as often as possible. Why risk cork taint if you don't have to? When you speak to producers on the island, they often recommend doing this (i.e., upright) because of the wine's acidity (Barros is absolutely insistent on it). I figure these guys know more about their w...

Roy, The reason why it is not a "wine-centric" place to visit, IMO, is primarily due to the way the business is handled . Most of the classic grape varietals are grown on very small terraced plots by folks that are literally at the subsistence crop level -- it is generally not an "int...

I realized I only answered half of your post, Marco . I liked it a lot; in fact, I just brought home two more bottles of Barros' Bastardo from my vacation last month, although I will admit that in addition to liking the wine for what it is, I also like the name, as it "suits my personality"...

Bastardo is not a very prolific grape, so one reason why it is so rare is that it is not in favor with the farmers that grow the grapes. I have had the Bastardo made by Artur Barros de Sousa; I would say it tends to be similar to Sercial in terms of where it fits on the sweetness scale, although I h...

Roy, This was my fourth trip. You know, I've never explicitly done any touring in a wine-related sort of way. The one place/lodge that I highly recommend you put on your itinerary is a visit to Artur Barros y Sousa, which is a tiny little producer right next door to D'Olvieira -- they are very small...

Roy,

If there is any interest, I've got a number of restaurant recommendations I could post for Madeira , but I didn't want to bog down a folder that is primarily designed for the Mainland. Let me know if you'd like me to post, or if you want to set up a separate folder to handle this.

Bob

Wilfried, I just got back from 10 days on the island -- I would say that the summer months are somewhat higher in humidity (i.e., July & August), but I've been there in July, May/June and December, and I've never experienced a stretch of bad weather. FYI, there are some very nice (and challengin...