We suck at rest days.  Monday was to be an easy day, with perhaps a visit to a Madeira wine lodge for a tour and tasting, in anticipation of a day golfing on Tuesday.  Unfortunately tours at the two lodges that interested us, Blandy's and HM Borges, were filled for a couple of days; however tastings are always available.  Thus, while it makes more sense to do the tour first to get more background on the wines, today we begin with a tasting at HM Borges.  We are not complaining.  According to Google maps it was a 2.6-mile fairly level walk, which certainly seemed doable.  Google, however, takes the straight path while we decided it would be more fun to walk the promenade since it was in the opposite direction from yesterday.  As it turns out, the promenade going east has some of the same characteristics as the westerly direction; that is, we go significantly up and down between street level and sea level, depending on intervening cliffs and ravines and buildings that make a straight sea level route unfeasible.  Thus we ended up with more than seven miles of up and down rather than five of level.  In the end a small price to pay for the wine experience (to Craig's mind at least).

HM Borges is a venerable winery in Madeira, tracing its history back to 1877.  In looking at lists of the best Madeira wines we saw that its wines were always included.  For the tasting we chose a selection of six wines which were presented in order of age, ranging from 10 years to 30, and taste, from dry to sweet.  Unfortunately, our preferences between the wines did not overlap, which could make future purchasing decisions difficult.  However, we are only at the beginning of our Madeira wine exploration so perhaps there will be some convergence in the future.  The woman who helped us with the tasting was very helpful and knowledgeable.  After we had finished Craig was looking at wines in their shop and noticed that one of the wines that Phyllis had particularly liked, a 20-year-old Malvasia, was also available in a 30-year-old vintage at a significantly greater price.  Upon inquiring about the difference, our wine guide promptly pulled out a bottle and gave us a taste, gratis, to demonstrate the difference.  The wines were in fact quite different but continuing our previous approach Phyllis liked one (the younger less expensive) while Craig liked the other.  #cheapdate.

For dinner we ate at a nearby restaurant recommended by our host and were agreeably pleased with our roast octopus selection.  We were not agreeably pleased to find that our bottle of tap water and two slices of bread cost 12 euros.  Learning and discovery.  

Yesterday was golf day, at the Palheiro Nature Reserve.  The Nature Reserve is part of an estate purchased in 1888 by the Blandy brother who then controlled the family businesses.  Part of the estate is now a botanical garden, part a prestigious town house development and, since 1993, part is a golf course.  Blandy's is the wine lodge we will visit tomorrow for a tour and tasting so this will be a nice segue.  Our lodging host is a golfer and had advised us to rent a "buggy" rather than walking the course as it is on the side of a mountain.  Good advice.  Very reminiscent of the Makalei golf course in Hawaii that we recently played, Palheiro starts partway up the mountain, goes up for three or four holes and then gradually works its way back down.  We were paired with a really nice person from the Netherlands who was in fact walking with a pull cart.  He had apparently played the day before with a buggy and thought he should try a different approach today.  After the round he confirmed that the buggy was the correct decision.  His wife, who was doing a spa day today (apparently their marital deal is when he golfs, she spas), joined us out on the Club's terrace for an early dinner.  The course was fun, we played well enough not to embarrass ourselves, and the company was delightful.  It was a good day.

Today was our day for a tour and tasting at Blandy's Wine Lodge.  Blandy's has been in existence since 1811 and, in addition to being a winery, has been involved in a very diverse assortment of businesses for over 200 years.  For example, in addition to building and owning the aforementioned golf course, Blandy's is heavily involved in shipping, hotel/resort development and management, travel services, and historically in banking, water supply systems, and coal bunkering.  Nonetheless, despite a more recent focus on real estate development, its core business remains the creation of Madeira wine, something they do very well judging by the awards they have accumulated.  The Blandys are the only family of all the original Madeira wine merchants to still own and operate their original wine company.  Its current CEO is in fact a 7th generation Blandy.  In an effort to jump start our Madeira wine education we did the combo tour with about an hour-and-a-half of tour and explanation and then a four-wine tasting.  The tour was excellent, the wine was great, and we were delighted to find out that we can order wine at the store in town and pick it up at their shop at the airport after security.  That could solve a looming suitcase space issue on our next flight.  One thing that seemed a little odd was that they have a couple of rooms where they keep rare and old bottles or, in some cases, jugs of Madeira.  Craig asked who gets to drink these and when do they drink it and was told no one ever does.  Seemed a waste.  There were a dozen or more bottles from 1870 for example, surely one would not be missed.

After the end of our tour/tasting, we walked downhill to the harbor, found a place to buy bus tickets and, after some searching, found the right bus at the right bus stop and made our way home.  Completely sated from our tasting, we called it a day after a light supper of fruit.