Madeira Wine: Boom and bust of the wine trade in the 19th century

19th CENTURY BUST

The Wine Economy slows down in the second half of the 19th century

A lithographic detail of the “Rua do Aljube”, by J.Selleney, during the second half of the nineteenth century.

But, then, disaster struck with a vengeance.

The mildew epidemic that occurred in 1852 destroyed a massive 90 percent of all the grapes on Madeira. This time the wine merchants were devastated. Almost all of the established British shippers subsequently left the island for Spain and of the 70 British establishments on the island in 1850 only 15 were left five years later.
Staying power and pure British pigheadedness helped the remaining tradesmen survive this period. They used the opportunity to stock up on old wine, a worthwhile investment, because this wine was necessary to blend with the grapes picked from the young vines.

In 1873, however, fate dealt another blow. A vine pest, brought from America (Phylloxera vastatrix), completely destroyed the existing plants.

It was only by importing resistant American vines, a measure instigated by the Blandy and Leacock families, that the Madeiran vines could be revived at all. This pest had the same disastrous consequences in Spain and France.

Madeira's wine-growing industry has suffered the consequences of these two events ever since. The old wine reserves which could be used for blending with the poorer quality wines were soon exhausted, and the replacement of such wine could not be expected for many years. This meant that some compromises had to be made in wine production, a trend that led to a general fall in standards.