Madeira wine
Madeira wine Madeira was first shipped to Europe in 1515, to the court of King Francis I of France. Shippers found that the mere act of shipping the wine through the equator helped its ageing process. So they filled pipes with the wine and purposefully used it as ballast on ships, to let it age! Because of this, Madeira became known as vinho da roda, or "wine of the round voyage." Madeira was highly in demand in young America, being enjoyed by Benjamin Franklin and by many Colonial Americans. Even now is quite popular, and often is a key ingredient in delicious recipes. Madeira is made with four varieties of grapes, and a bottle of Madeira should be labelled according to which were used in it. These are: sercial, a very dry taste, light colour verdelho, medium dry, golden colour bual, medium sweet, velvety, dark gold to brown malmsey, the original grape, sweet, chestnut-brown Madeira is often made in the "refreshed" manner - a batch is made,...