How long does Madeira keep once opened?

Madeira is deliberately heated and exposed to oxygen during maturation, so that the change other wine undergoes after opening is already behind it.

With estufagem the wine is heated with warm water of 45 to 50 degrees, never for less than three months, followed by a rest period of at least 90 days. With canteiro the wine matures for years in casks in the warm attics of the lodges. That is where the fortification comes in: wine alcohol of 96 percent is added, which according to the producer brings the bottle to 17 to 21 percent.

Madeira Wine Company, the producer behind Cossart Gordon among others, states that an opened bottle lasts many months if stored well.

The conditions the producer names are simple: store upright, out of direct sunlight, just below room temperature. For old frasqueiras the same producer gives a separate rule for opening: allow one day in advance for every ten years the wine has lain in bottle. For an ordinary madeira from the kitchen cupboard that is not necessary.

Stand the bottle upright, with the cork or cap firmly on, out of the sun and just below room temperature.

Storing upright also applies to Madeira for closed bottles: the acidity of the wine dries out the cork when it stays in prolonged contact with it. A cool cupboard is enough, a wine cellar is not necessary. Blandy’s adds that the wine must be kept away from sun, heat and damp. If there is still a little left in the bottle, pour it into a smaller bottle.

Dry and medium-dry madeira is served chilled, around 12 degrees; medium-sweet and sweet styles lightly chilled, around 16 degrees.

That breakdown comes from the producer itself. Blandy’s uses 16 to 18 degrees for the whole range, depending on age and style. The sweetness levels are fixed in the rules: seco, meio seco, meio doce and doce, with limits around 65, 80 and 96 grams of sugar per litre. Sercial is on the dry side, malvasia on the sweet side.

Madeira is classified by grape and by sweetness: sercial dry, verdelho medium-dry, boal medium-sweet and malvasia sweet.

There is also tinta negra, a grape used in all sweetness levels. The label often shows an age statement: 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 or 40 years. Colheita comes from a single harvest year and frasqueira is the category for the longest-aged bottles. The IVBAM supervises these designations on behalf of the autonomous region of Madeira.