Portuguese Wines Madeira Portugal is almost a one-wine-country. The vast majority of people only know Portugal for port, the thick, long-aging fortified wine of renown. How about Madeira, created on an island by Casablanca? Or how about the other wines of this region? Madeira is an island southwest of Portugal, off the city of Casablanca. Back in the 1500s, to allow their wines to last the long ocean journeys, the natives would add brandy to it. This would make the wine more resistant to temperature changes. This made madeira a "fortified wines". Madeira was first shipped to Europe in 1515, to the court of King Francis I of France. Shippers found that the mere act of shipping the wine through the equator helped its aging process. So they filled pipes with the wine and purposefully used it as ballast on ships, to let it age! Because of this, madeira became known as vinho da roda, or "wine of the round voyage." Madeira was highly in demand in young America, and even now is quite popular.