Madeira wine tours: a local guide
Madeira wine is fortified, oxidised, heat-aged, and built to last. A properly stored bottle from 1900 is still pleasant to drink today. The wine industry on the island is tiny but punches well above its weight: four main producers, four noble grape varieties, a handful of cellars open to visitors, and a centuries-old supply chain involving the British East India trade.
The four noble varieties
A proper tasting flight covers all four:
- Sercial (driest, citrus, almond)
- Verdelho (dry, smoke, dried apricot)
- Bual (medium-sweet, caramel, raisin)
- Malvasia or Malmsey (sweet, dark fruit, the dessert pour)
Producers also bottle Tinta Negra (the workhorse grape, less prestige) at a lower price. If a tasting flight is only Tinta Negra at varying ages, it is not a "noble varieties" flight.
Blandy's vs D'Oliveiras
Blandy's Wine Lodge in central Funchal is the polished tour: 12-25 EUR for a 45-minute walk through the cellars and a small flight at the end. Professional, clean, kid-friendly.
D'Oliveiras is around the corner, smaller, more personal, and the staff pour generously. If you have already done one cellar tour and want something less curated, this is where I send people. Henriques and Henriques and Justinos are the other two main labels; both are based outside central Funchal and need a car or taxi to reach.
Buy at the supermarket
A bottle of 10-year Bual at the Pingo Doce supermarket runs about 25 EUR. The same bottle at a Funchal restaurant is 65-80 EUR. If you plan to drink it with dinner during your stay, buy at the supermarket on day one.
Where to go next
For per-cellar tour descriptions, vintage recommendations, and a fair-price reference, see the Madeira wine tours hub at madeirawinetours.org. The site has a Blandy wine cellar tour breakdown with comparison to alternatives, a Madeira wine tasting primer for first-timers, and a Wine tour from Funchal list of the half-day options including transport.
By Filipe Pereira, Madeira local travel guide. Last verified 2026-05-04.