25-02-2010 Madeira, Funchal. After 11 years being away from this marvelous island it was time to explore Madeira's nature again and, now we all got a bit older, visit the famous vineyards of Madeira and watch the process of making this particular wine. 
In Funchal you'll find some places where you can buy the bottled versions in various ages and blends and they will help you with all information you need to know all about the Madeira wines. 
There's even a wine museum. Interesting and educational so far. 

At the museum , at the winestore and at several restaurants we ask politely where we could find the best vineyards of Madeira and see this special process of winemaking. Were are these old cellars full with old barrels from the time far before the train was invented? Nobody knew any exact addresses nor places to visit except the commercial cellars with some barrels in the city. 

So we asked again which area is mostly known most for its Madeira grape vineyards. We received several answers varying from Sao Vincente, Santana Area and Sao Jorge. To make sure we can reach all places we rented a car and we drove through the Madeira landscape and arrived on the north side of this worldwide reknowned wine island. Wine island?  So far along the way we only determined Avocado's, Passion fruit, Melons and Pineapples but most of all, upto 800m height, BANANA's!!  Not a single vineyard except small gardens for personal winemaking use. But even those are hard to find. All these typical terrace-shaped peices of land along the hillsides are planted with typical Madeirean banana's. As far as we can see and reach only these yellow bowed carb fruits.

Cris-Crossing the landscape we pass the area's we were advised to visit and we ask the locals where we can find the major vinification area's and houses like Henriques & Henriques.  From each and every local we get the answer we need to be in Funchal..... Yes we know, but where are the vineyards?  We only see banana's, banana's and again banana's and sorry to say so, after driving from Santana to Porto Moniz, again cris-crossing landinwards and along the shore, we do not see any vineyard... From Porto Moniz we drive landinwards to Rabacal and from Rabacal down to the southern coast. Again not a single serious vineyard, none!