Vineyards and grapes of Porto Santo

– Special consideration is due to the interesting information supplied by the distinguished agricultural technician (regente agrícola) José Cruz Tavares on the cultivation of the vine and the production of grapes on the neighbouring island of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), even though one may perhaps disagree with some of the assertions contained in his articles on this important subject. We shall transcribe from them various passages that relate most particularly to the plan we have adopted here.

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For a long time now I have thought that the farmers of the island of Porto Santo ought to seek to extend the area under vines, since this seems to me advantageous for the reasons I shall set out.

In the island’s poor and badly tilled soil, it is absolutely proven that the vine thrives better than any other crop. So much so that, despite its small extent, the economy of the 2,500 inhabitants who people the island, all or almost all of them farmers, rests mainly upon it. When the vine fails to produce, there is black poverty in the households, which are unambitious enough as it is.

Extending the cultivation of the vine would, in my view, be the most practical, viable and profitable way of partly promoting the afforestation of Porto Santo, an island that is today practically bare, and whose covering will not be easy without great expense on the part of the State and without the collaboration and goodwill of the whole population. Without trees the island is dry and its rainfall pattern completely disordered. If the winters are not very rainy, even drinking water runs short in summer. At other times torrential rains sweep the arable soil of the hills into the sea, leaving in its place gullies and fearsome ravines that hamper any and all tillage work that may be attempted.’

Let us first consider where the 250,000 kilos of grapes – an approximate estimate – that the island of Porto Santo produces on average at present have gone until now: to Funchal, as fruit. The rest is made into must, amounting to around 250 pipas. Part of this must is bought by the Madeira wine exporters, who fortify it before fermentation begins and take it to their Funchal lodges for blending and sweetening the fortified wines. The other part, about 200 pipas, ferments completely and is sold as table wine, chiefly in Madeira. Even so, not a single brand of table wine capable of making its name by its qualities or character is produced at present anywhere in the archipelago.

Madeira yields the celebrated fortified wines known throughout the world, but it cannot produce good table wines, given its very special agro-climatic conditions. On Porto Santo the situation is different. This island, lying only 40 miles north-east of the other, has entirely different soil and climatic conditions, closer to those of the mainland, though without losing their very sui generis character. The main difference between the musts produced on Porto Santo and those of Madeira lies in the relation between sugar content and total acidity.

The Delegation of the National Wine Board (Junta Nacional do Vinho) in the Madeira Wine Region, after the oenological trials it carried out, has already reached definitive conclusions about the nature and excellent quality of the table wines made from Porto Santo musts. Their acceptance by the Madeiran market also seems beyond doubt, both for their price and because they satisfy the most demanding palates. Nearly 200 pipas of mainland white and red wines are imported into Madeira every year; they are expensive, not always good, and many are of rather lower quality than that of Porto Santo. The latter could replace them, if not entirely then at least in large part. Moreover, consumption of Porto Santo wine on the Madeiran market could be greatly increased beyond its present level through well-judged publicity, which would not even be very costly. The question lies solely, and above all, in presenting it well made to the consumer, and in bringing out, through sound oenological technique, the exceptional qualities that undoubtedly distinguish it.

The consumption of fresh grapes could also be greatly expanded, provided that the trade were properly regulated so as to put an end to a number of abuses; some 100 tonnes are consumed amid the present disorder, which the administrative authority of Porto Santo, despite its very best intentions, has not managed to stop. Such regulation is no insurmountable task at present, thanks to the Corporative and Economic Coordination Bodies established in the archipelago.

The grapes grown on this island, above all white Listrão and Moscatel, are sweet, intensely fragrant and keep exceptionally well. They are certainly the first to ripen anywhere in metropolitan Portuguese territory, perhaps by a margin of nearly a month over the next. I believe that no serious attempt has yet been made to place Porto Santo grapes on the main markets of mainland Portugal, let alone on foreign markets. Since they are the first to appear, I think an experiment of this kind would give positive results.

Nor, as far as I know, has anyone thought of setting up a small raisin industry in Madeira, although raisins are much sought after today and sell at profitable prices. The grapes of Porto Santo, with their size, fragrance and richness in sugar, would naturally be the best suited. They lack nothing to rival the finest.

The technique of sweetening Madeira’s fortified wines with jeropigas and abafados from Porto Santo (vinhos surdos), used on a very small scale by the exporters, is imperfect, but it is nonetheless to be recommended where nothing better is available or possible. It is to be expected that, if the policy of quality in the production and trade of Portuguese wines continues to be followed, the Madeira wine exporters will turn more and more to the reserves of sugar that the musts of Porto Santo can supply. Everything suggests that this will happen, gradually, in the more or less near future. And if it does, nothing prevents me from thinking that this outlet could absorb more than ten times the present production.

These, then, are the reasons – not, however, free from certain conditions – that lead me to foresee, at a relatively early date, the improvement in value of the land of Porto Santo through the planting of vineyards, and to predict success for the farmers and landowners who take this path.’