SO – I am still here at the Casa Vehla do Palheiro ... which is just as lovely as it was yesterday.
We started off at breakfast – followed by a Madeira wine tasting. And I don’t mean “table wine” – I mean the fortified wine type. With the hotel “sommelier” Luis Emanuel, we tried a 5 year, 10 year and 34 year old ... By the way, the term fortified means addition of “distilled grape spirit”. The wine industry in Madeira has been around since the early 16th century.
I fell asleep for 10 minutes after this before running down to the kitchen to learn how to prepare a sea-bream dish ... which was prepared with sweet potato, green butternut, mango and passion fruit. It was rather tasty. The chef Francesco Quintal is a fabulous chef.
After a lovely lunch at Jardins da Lago (another lovely quinta) we ventured into central Funchal to a sugar cane factory. Honey cake is actually made of syrup ... which is made from sugar cane. So – the cane is harvested, then the juice is filtered three times, heated to 90 degrees, pushed through a vacuum chamber ... and finally it comes out as this deep, dark and VERY sweet ...
The factory – Fabrica do Ribeiro Seco ... it’s run by the Melim family ... who are just fabulous.
We then went off to an artisan baker to learn how to make “honey cake”. This is a normal cake – syrup, flour, spices and nuts ... it is delicious. My two lovely cake makers Maria Camancho and Lucia Govia.
Now a little bit about the hotel ... there are a total of 37 rooms and suites that vary in size from 28 to 60 square metres. Some of the guestrooms were built in 1804 ... which gives you a picture of just how historic some of the buildings in the hotel are!
The Casa Vehla do Palheiro was built as a hunting lodge in the 19th century for Count Carvalhal and once even hosted the King & Queen of Portugal . From the turn to the late 20th century though, the estate fell into disrepair until by Presidential command in 1987, it was restored. The property opened in 1997 – the island’s first 5-star country house hotel.
There are plenty of facilities and amenities on offer.
The hotel has a world famous 18 hole golf course attached ... there’s also a spa – opened in 2009 – complete with treatment rooms, steam & sauna, fitness centre and an indoor heated swimming pool.
There’s also a large outdoor swimming pool and an all-weather tennis court ...
The Palheiro Gardens are renowned for their beauty and diversity. Some of the rare trees that grace the Quinta date back to 1801 ...
By the way, a quinta is a house with a “walled garden” ...
