Madeira

Madeira is the great fortified wine of the Portuguese island of the same name, a volcanic Atlantic outpost off the coast of north-west Africa. What sets it apart is the way it is made: the wine is deliberately heated and allowed to oxidise — by the industrial estufagem tank method or the slow, cask-aged canteiro method — a process born of long sea voyages through the tropics that cooks the wine into something almost indestructible. Styles run from bone-dry Sercial through medium Verdelho and Bual to richly sweet Malmsey, but all share intense flavours of caramel, toffee, roasted nut, dried fruit and burnt sugar carried on a piercing, tangy acidity. Famously, an opened bottle can last for months without spoiling.