I'll drink to that where we get behind the scenes of the beverage business.

I'm Levy Dalton.

I'm Erin Scala and here's our show today. Oh, Madeira sits apart from the rest in more ways than one.

Geographically a few nearby islands serve as neighbors in this

otherwise lonely corner of the Atlantic Ocean.

6,500 years ago, there was an active volcano here, forming some of the unique topographical features you'll find on the island.

But many of the animals on Madeira ended up here accidentally, a stowaway mouse or rat on a ship, a spider that hitched

her eye on some rigging or on the back of a bird.

And more than one person has shipwrecked on Madeira, or one of its neighbors.

The ancient world knew about the island. Pliny may have mentioned the place.

Plutarch probably wrote about it and you can see it on some ago. Large maps.

There's evidence of possible human arrival as early as about a thousand years ago.

Large-scale settlement by humans occurred after Madeira was claimed for Portugal,

by Prince Henry the Navigator in 1419.

He also found the island when some of his maids accidentally shipwrecked nearby.

Once Henry declared Madeira a prize for Portugal, Portugal needed to make sure that Madeira was profitable and in the

1400s that meant sugar. Before the wine trade took off sugar cane and sugar beets

were farmed to ultimately bring in money to the Portuguese crown.

Later, distilled alcohol from sugar cane would be used to fortify wine for the long oceanic ship journeys.

With transatlantic trade taking off and the new market of the American colonies, the island of Madeira was a natural place for European ships to stop before heading out to the Americas.

A stop here would lessen the total consecutive days at sea by about one sixth or one seventh,

and the ship could stock up on any necessities or regroup after the journey

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