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Off to Madeira soon. I wonder if there are any particular wine shops I should check out? ISTR someone once said there was a good one near the Lido area.
I understand it’ll be pretty much all Portuguese wines there, except in the supermarkets.
We discovered that finding dry table wines made on Madeira quite difficult, though we did manage a few; often in the mini-supermarkets actually. But of course you’d go to Madeira to taste and buy “Madeira” surely and the well known usual suspects with shop fronts and tasting rooms in Funchal don’t disappoint, in particular d’Oliveiras.
On the north side there’s always the Seixal co-op cellar door to try https://seical.pt which is open weekdays only, 9-6.
Doing a Google Maps search “wine shops near Funchal” brings up at least a dozen results so you could browse that list.
We’ve been to Barbeito and very much enjoyed their wines - they have some cracking table wines in addition to the fortified stuff. Was after more of an “Oddbins of Madeira”. The wine shops that come up on Google seem not to have useful websites.
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Absolutely; Barbeito was our best cellar door visit too. But a bit of a trek out of town which requires a vehicle to get there.
Are you buying for drinking there or to bring home?
When I’ve been I’ve usually just used the local mini-supermarkets (as per @PHarvey’s suggestion) or the supermarket in the basement of the shopping centre in Funchal, which have served. There’s a wine shop next door to Blandy’s (possibly run by them) which felt touristic and overpriced when we went in. Odd as the prices in the Blandy’s wine lodge (and their bar) weren’t so bad.
Mostly to drink there. We will have a car for some of the time. Will likely pop up to Barbeito to pick up some stuff. We do also have hold luggage for small precious things.
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The mini supermarkets are the cornerstones of life in Madeira. You’ll often find people in them having a drink (usually poncha, the local rum punch analogue - good but slightly confusing for non-natives mostly as it’s served at room temperature rather than over ice which most of the world would with this) and they tend to have a small, reasonably priced, reasonably drinkable wines. The same goes for meats and cheeses.
A big fan of poncha, and like the way it’s not cold. Lemon is my favourite flavour.
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Either the lemon one or the “you can have poncha or you can not have poncha” flavour are my favourites too.
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What does the latter one mean?!
There are places I’ve had it where they look at you funny if you try to specify a flavour of poncha and just give you “poncha”, usually a fresh made mixed citrus one.
Slightly out of Funchal, but it sounds as if you will have a car. Excellent because you can choose exactly which ones you want to taste. Not as picturesque as Blandys, but they do have parking (and, I thought, better wines).
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I’d agree with that entirely.
Câmara de Lobos? I’m fairly sure I’ve been recommended a restaurant quite near there. ISTR it specialises in meat!
Maybe stating the obvious, but you can visit both Blandys and Henriques & Henriques.
I recommend both. As far as I remember, there was a wine store attached to Blandy’s, with a decent selection.
I also highly recommend La Vaca Negra, a great little steak house.
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Agreed on vaca negra, superb place
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Yes, it’s called A Loja do Vinho. Nice selection of premium Portuguese wines if you’re looking for something special to bring back / drink in your accommodation 
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Barbeito have a shop on Avda Arriaga. Or at least used to.
It’s quite remarkable how much quite expensive Madeira is sold in pretty much every shop and petrol station. The range of Portuguese wines sold in the large supermarkets (eg Continente) is extremely impressive, too.
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Loja dos Vinhos is in the Lido area as is Terroir Portugal. Both have a reasonable range of Portuguese wines.
Perola dos Vinhos is a small shop near the front not far from the Cathedral.
A Loja do Vinho is Blandy’s own store on Avenida Arriaga; they have wines from Portugal and more.
We were last in Madeira in December and found that the price of Madeira wine has gone up a lot. Our favourite - Blandy’s 75cl 10 year old Sercial, used to be about 20 Euros in the supermarket and mid 20s at the airport. It was over 35 Euros in the airport last time - up nearly 10 Euros from the previous year. Also we have noticed that there is a lot less for sale in the Pingo Doce supermarkets than there used to be. When we first visited in 2014 there was much more.
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