Madeira, · Portugal Techniques

The Christmas cake of Madeira — a dark, dense, highly spiced cake of molasses (mel de cana, sugar cane molasses), flour, butter, lard, spices (cinnamon, cloves, anise, fennel), dried fruits, and nuts, kept for months or years in a cool cellar. Bolo de mel is made in November for Christmas, broken (never sliced — it must be broken by hand) in early January, and the tradition dictates that if any remains from the previous year, it should be finished before the new year's cake is opened. The recipe is unchanged from the 16th century, when sugar cane was Madeira's primary export. The molasses — the by-product of sugar production — went into the bolo that workers took home from the engenhos (sugar mills).

Madeira is the world's most indestructible wine — a consequence of the unique production process that involves deliberate heating of the wine (estufagem) and oxidative aging in casks stored in warm conditions. The estufagem (heating) was initially accidental: fortified wine travelling through the tropics as ballast in sailing ships was discovered to improve from the heat and movement. The technique was then deliberately replicated — first in hot warehouses (armazéns) on the volcanic island of Madeira, then in modern estufas (heated tanks) for commercial production. The heating process and oxidation produce a wine that is virtually immune to further oxidation — an opened bottle of Madeira can remain drinkable for months, sometimes years. The four noble grape varieties — Sercial, Verdelho, Bual, and Malmsey — define a dryness spectrum from bone dry to lusciously sweet.