The Portuguese island of Madeira is best known for its eponymous fortified wine, but it was not always king of drinks alone — there was rum, too.

The island, out in the Atlantic and closer to the northwest coast of Africa than Lisbon, still has a few rum distilleries. And the spirit is widely found diluted in the fruity ponchas, or punches, that pervade tourist bars.

But the number of distilleries on the island is now less than a handful — a shadow of what it was some 200 years ago when there were an estimated 50 sprouting from the sugar cane plantations. Few visitors now think of rum as they would in, say, the Caribbean.

Madeira rum is “rhum agricole”, meaning it is made directly from cane syrup, rather than “rhum industriel”, which comes from the byproduct molasses. It is also matured in Madeira fortified-wine casks.

Madeira’s rum business fell on hard time partly as a result of the decline in sugar plantations — cane was introduced in the mid-15th century on orders from Portugal’s Prince Henry the Navigator, but declined to next to nothing after the 17th century when Portugal’s then-colony Brazil began to dominate.

Source: https://in.reuters.com/article/portugal-madeira-rum-idINKBN1E71LA