The island of Madeira was discovered in 1419 by the Portuguese mariner João Gonçalves Zarco who had been instructed by Prince Henry the Navigator to explore the west African Coast. Prince Henry appointed Zarco governor of the island and ordered him to plant sugar cane and vineyards.

The original impetus to the trade in Madeira was provided in the late 17th Century by the King of Portugal who ordered that ships bound for Brazil should call at the island to take on wine for the developing settlements in his distant colony.

By the reign of English King Charles II, demand for Madeira was firmly established along the North American seaboard. Indeed the wine played such an important part in the American way of life that it was used to toast the Declaration of Independence and the Inauguration of George Washington who, it was said, “drank a pint of Madeira at dinner daily.”

The origins of the Madeira Wine Company started in 1913 when two companies, Welsh & Cunha and Henriques & Camara, joined forces to form the Madeira Wine Association Lda. Through the lean years that followed more companies joined, giving rise to the humorous naming of the Association as “the shippers’ cemetery”.

Blandy and Leacocks amalgamated their interests and joined the association in 1925. The chairman of this newly enlarged enterprise was John Ernest Blandy, supported by Thomas L. Mullins as Managing Director who had previously looked after the Blandy’s wines.

Other companies such as Luiz Gomes da Conceicão & Filhos, Miles Madeira Lda, F.F. Ferraz & Cia, and T.T da Camara Lomelino joined the association in the years that followed. The spirit of the union, ably organised by Tom Mullins, was to maintain the individuality of the different companies together with their respective styles of wines while at the same time reducing overheads.

Cossart, Gordon & Co Ltd became a partner in 1953 and 28 years later the association changed its name to the Madeira Wine Company Lda. (MWC)

During the 1980s the Blandy family, who continued to control the company and whose family had lived on the island since 1811, realised that the business needed to find a partner from outside who could help them develop the company’s brands profile and world wide distribution. They decided to approach  the Symington family, who had known the Blandys for many years. The Symington family brought an extensive worldwide distribution network and a total quality approach as well as valuable experience in developing another range of fortified wines through their origins in the Port trade.

The Symingtons subsequently took a controlling share of the business in 1989 and since then much time and effort has been invested in improving the packaging and reinforcing the distribution network of the Madeira Wine Company’s well known brands.

Substantial investment has also been made bringing up to today’s exacting standards the quality of the wines and the ways of handling them during their maturation. 2000 saw the completion of a major renovation project to the wine making installation in Funchal, providing improved facilities for the blending and storage of the company's fine wines.

The lovely Old Blandy Wine Lodge in the centre of Funchal is visited by some 200,000 people per year and acts as an excellent show place for many the finest wines of Madeira. It also includes a special tasting room solely devoted to Vintage Madeiras.

Sales of Madeira are now developing steadily fuelled by the renewed interest in the wine. It had become somewhat overlooked in the present century, partly because the great number of ships which used to call at Madeira had dropped to just a few per month.

The Symingtons are very optimistic about the future of Madeira and continue to invest in the production and marketing of their three principal brands: Blandy, Cossart Gordon and Leacock. As the most important shipper of island-bottled Madeira, the business is well placed to continue the revival of this most historic wine.