FEATURES ARCHIVE

The history and development of Madeira wines over the last 500 years are inextricably linked with England. Numerous references to Madeira and Malmsey specifically are to be found in the manuscripts of William Shakespeare dating from the latter part of the 16th century and Customs House records indicate that export of wines from the island were already widespread into England, mainland Europe and even the New World by the 1550's and 1560's. Viniculture was already a well established practice for maybe a century at this time, with the earliest records detailing wine production from before 1485.

When Charles II married the sister of King Alfonso VII of Portugal in 1662, the link to these islands was indeed strengthened and further export benefits granted to Madeira shippers over and above other European exporters, meant a virtual monopoly for trading with the Americas and the Caribbean. By the mid 1700's, the first fledgling companies with UK connections were being founded by entrepreneurs newly arrived in Madeira - notably John Leacock who first came in 1741 and began trading under his own name in 1760 and Francis Newton from Scotland who, in 1745 started the firm that was to become Cossart Gordon & Co.

The Leacock family continued to run their business through successive generations, with John's two sons, John and William taking the reins in 1791. The next generation was headed by Thomas Slapp Leacock who took control in 1877, he the great-grandfather of William Leacock whose wines are offered for sale in the December Finest & Rarest Wines auction in London. Thomas's place in Madeiran history was further cemented when in 1873, he recognised the arrival of phylloxera in local vineyards and started a programme of vine treatment at the Leacock's St. John's property in Pico Sao Joao, that was to ensure the survival of the traditional grape varieties that we know today.

The selection of lot numbers 1 to 182, offered in the 11 December Finest & Rarest Wines sale, represent the major part of the private collection of William Leacock, the last family head of Leacock and Co. before it was acquired by the Madeira Wine Company in 1981. All the bottles were recently inspected, packed and removed by Christie's Wine Department staff, from the underground cellars of Mr Leacock's impressive Funchal mansion and shipped to London by sea in the manner of so many previous exports over the last half-millennium.