Madeira

Note Profile

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About

Madeira is the smell of a fortified wine that has been deliberately heated and oxidised. Nutty leads, with walnut and almond before anything else. Caramelised sugar sits with it, then dried fruit, then a mocha-chocolate note that only the sweeter styles carry. High acidity keeps it from reading as a syrup. That acidity sets it apart from sherry and tawny port.

Scent Profile

Madeira smells nutty first, walnut and almond before anything else, the mark of a wine deliberately heated and oxidised. Caramelised sugar sits close behind, then dried fig and raisin rather than fresh fruit. The sweeter styles add a mocha-chocolate note. Warm spice and dry wood run through the middle, and a high, sharp acidity keeps it from reading as syrup, the trait that sets it apart from sherry or tawny port. A honeyed fig sweetness lingers at the back.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~6h lasting

Family Sweet & Gourmand, Fruity

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

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Materials That Can Make This Note

Perfumers can build Madeira from materials such as:

4-hydroxy-2,3-dimethyl-2H-furan-5-one caramellic · maple · coffee

Smell words come from published sources.

A given perfume with this note may use some of these, or something else.

Origin

A fortified wine from the island of Madeira. The wine is heated, either in tanks (estufagem) or slowly under a warm roof (canteiro), which forces the oxidation that makes the style. A peer-reviewed aroma study names sotolon as a powerful odourant of aged Madeira, 'responsible for burnt, curry, honey, nutty, spicy, walnut odours', with volatile phenols from the heating adding toast and wood. Styles run from dry Sercial and Verdelho to sweet Bual and Malmsey, and merchant tasting notes show the drier ones reading cleaner, lighter and only lightly nutty. There is no perfumery raw material. Any Madeira note is an accord built to the drink.

Usage in Perfumery

Used as a gourmand and boozy accent, usually in the heart. It reads as a warmer, nuttier and more toasted version of the fortified-wine idea than port wine, which is fruit-led. The sour edge gives it lift that a straight caramel accord does not have.