The grape behind most Madeira. When oidium and then phylloxera devastated the island in the nineteenth century, the noble four — Sercial, Verdelho, Bual and Malvasia — never recovered their ground; Tinta Negra, adaptable, productive and probably Andalusian in origin, was planted en masse in their place and came to supply the great bulk of the island's wine.
For generations it did so namelessly, hidden behind style designations, while the noble varieties took the labels. Rehabilitation came only recently: from 2015, single-variety bottlings were permitted to name Tinta Negra, and the best proved that the pragmatic survivor could cover the whole Madeira spectrum, dry to sweet, with genuine finesse — a fitting range for the workhorse of a wine that itself cannot die.