Blandy's Wine Lodge

The four tours scale by both time and depth of tasting. The Private Tour, at $171.90 (€150) per person, is capped at a maximum of four guests and runs 60 minutes, shorter than the Vintage Premium Tour despite the higher price, because you are paying for a dedicated guide rather than more wine.

Children's Pricing

Children under 6 go free on any tour. Ages 6 to 17 pay $9.63 (€8.40), a single reduced rate that applies regardless of which of the four tours the family joins.

Madeira wine is classified by IVBAM using a Baumé sugar measurement rather than the simpler grams-per-litre scale some guides quote, and the four noble grape styles run dry to sweet in a fixed order: Sercial, Verdelho, Bual (also called Boal) and Malvasia, often labelled Malmsey. A wine with no age statement on the label carries a minimum of three years' ageing, and beyond that the permitted age indications on a bottle are 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 and over 50 years. That framework is worth knowing before a tasting, because a lodge guide will usually walk the flight from Sercial through to Malmsey in that order, from the driest to the sweetest style, and the classification explains why.

Blandy's opens Monday to Friday 10:00-18:30, Saturday 10:00-18:00, and Sunday in two blocks, 10:00-13:00 and 14:00-18:00. It is open on most public holidays, which sets it apart from many paid sights in the city, but the lodge's own 2026 calendar carries specific exceptions: it is closed on 5 April, 27 June and 25-26 December, and it runs shortened hours on 20 June, 24 December and 31 December. Check the date against this list before a holiday visit rather than assume the lodge follows the standard weekly schedule on every day of the year.

Blandy's also runs separate vineyard tours away from the Avenida Arriaga lodge, at Quinta de Santa Luzia, Rua da Levada de Santa Luzia 124, reached by city buses 26 and 70. The Vineyard Heritage tour, €45, runs 90 minutes and tastes a 10-year Sercial, Verdelho, Bual and Malmsey flight, while the Vineyard Collection Tour, €65, also 90 minutes, works through a six-wine vertical. Both run Tuesday to Saturday.

These are a different experience from the city-centre lodge tours above: fewer visitors, a working vineyard setting, and a longer, more structured tasting.

The lodge sits on Avenida Arriaga, a few minutes from the Sé cathedral and the tourist office, so it fits naturally into a centre walk on any day of the week, Sunday included. A 30 minute Lodge Tour slots easily between the cathedral and lunch, while the 90 minute Vintage Premium Tour is better placed as the afternoon's main activity rather than a quick stop between two others. The rest of the centre is on Funchal city centre.