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Fancy pan-fried frogs legs with chervil sauce or steamed wild sea bass with oyster tartar? These are just two of the creations Chef Antoine Westermann spoils his guests with at The Vine, Design Hotels™’ newest member hotel in Madeira. At UVA, the hotel’s gourmet restaurant, the award-winning chef creates fusion cuisine at its best. Locals have also discovered this gem – for its culinary delights as well as the spectacular views.

Tantalising Creations Above the City
UVA is situated on the rooftop terrace of The Vine with panoramic views over the capital Funchal. Like the hotel, the restaurant takes its name from the famous Madeira wine and means ‘grape.’ At this intimate restaurant Antoine Westermann combines the savoir-vivre of the French cuisine with the best and freshest ingredients from Madeira. The menu is quite diverse and includes extraordinary entrées such as roast pigeon stuffed with vegetable tagine and scallops pan-fried with walnuts and hazelnuts. To round off the dinner, a number of sweet desserts are on offer, including Westermann’s famous macaroons and salted caramel croustillant, served with Madeira wine. For a special dinner party or a cocktail reception, UVA offers a private dining room.

Maestro Antoine Westermann
The Alsatian chef is known for his innovative creations. His fusion cuisine blends Alsatian and international specialities. Westermann earned a total of three Michelin stars for his restaurant Le Buerehiesel in Strasbourg. Moreover, he received four Gault Millau chef hats. Westermann also runs the restaurant Drouant in Paris.

The “ninimalist” Design
The interiors reflect the vision of Nini Andrade Silva, a local designer with an international reputation. In reference to her name, her style is called “ninimalism”. The interior design of the 79 room property is inspired by the Madeira wine. This is also reflected in the UVA restaurant, with the shades of green, brown and purple representing the four different seasons and the maturation of a grape throughout the year.

(source Travel Blackboard)

Despite a low rate of excise duty for local products, their market share has been lower, and the prices higher, than those of similar products from other parts of the EU. In Madeira local products take 20.3% of the market, in the Azores 38.9%.  This is mainly because raw materials such as sugar cane, fruit, plants, honey, cream, milk and wine are dearer in these remote regions than elsewhere.

The local industry employs around 130 workers in Madeira and around 90 in the Azores. In Madeira, the cultivation and processing of sugar cane and fruit provides work for around 1,000 family-owned agricultural holdings. According to the European Commission, without the reduced duty, higher retail selling prices would threaten the survival of the industry.

Under the EU Council decision approved by Parliament, the Portuguese government will continue to have the right to apply reduced excise duties in Madeira on locally produced and consumed rum and liqueurs, and in the Azores on locally produced and consumed liqueurs and fruit brandy.

A similar derogation applies to the production of traditional rum in the French Overseas Territories and to the Canary Islands. The rates of the excise duty are re-examined every two years.

(source Europaisches Parlament)

News in the travel press is that Madeira is to get a brand new golf complex as there are plans for a new Nick Faldo resort on the island.

Planning permission has apparently been granted for an 18 hole golf resort at Ponto do Pargo and it is thought that the approval of the new resort will cause property values to rise steeply in the Ponto do Pargo region. Madeira is well served by cheap flights to Funchal and has all the ingredients necessary for this project to go ahead say cheap flight website airflights.co.uk.

Madeira has an ideal year round climate and golfers tend to be bigger spenders than some other holiday maker groups. Golf enthusiasts whilst enjoying the availability of cheap flights to Funchal will look for better quality hotels on the island and consequently bring spending power to the area and this no doubt will have an effect on improving the infrastructure on Madeira say airflights.co.uk

Describing the proposed Madeira course on his website, Faldo writes: “With many of the holes hugging the cliff tops and views across the ocean from much of the course, this will certainly be an aesthetically appealing round of golf.”

Airflights report that the availability of cheap flights through their website has meant an increase in golfers booking with them in 2009. Airflights try to arrange for the carriage of clubs with the airline where possible thereby saving their clientele the worry. Golf is a fast up and coming pursuit with clients wanting some sunshine to play in rather than struggling round in the wet and windy British climate say the flight agent.

You can book with airflights at www.airflights.co.uk where they offer a choice of cheap flights to beach destinations in Europe such as cheap flights to Funchal, Malaga, Alicante, Dalaman and Bodrum (Turkey), Paphos, Larnaca, Tenerife, Fuerteventura Lanzarote and Gran Canaria as well as Cheap flights and All Inclusive hotels in Egypt at the Red Sea resorts of Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada which are popular for scuba diving. They have literally thousands of cheap hotels and apartments and offer cheap Resort Transfers, car hire and of course cheap airport car parking. Visit them on line at www.airflights.co.uk or call them free on 0800 093 2615. Airflights are Fully protected by ABTA and have been established for 15 years.

(source Airflights.co.uk)

The Regional Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources anticipates that the volume of Madeira aquaculture exports will increase around 80 per cent this year, going from 283.1 exported tonnes in 2008 to nearly 500 tonnes.

Regional secretary Manuel Antonio Correia estimates that the value of exports overseas will increase from EUR 990,800 in 2008 to EUR 1.7 million in 2009.

On the basis of these projections, Correia considers that “marine aquaculture of a commercial nature in the autonomous region of Madeira is in full growth,” Jornal da Madeira reports.

On the issue, he pointed out that the region has excellent conditions for farmed fish production, since the average temperature of sea water in winter is far superior to that of continental Europe.

“Due to this factor, the growth of farmed fish is faster, and the production cycles are shorter and lower in cost, making the activity more competitive at the European level,” he maintained.

“In Europe (the Mediterranean zone), the necessary time for juvenile common sea bream specimens to reach commercial size is 13 to 16 months. In Madeira, that time can be reduced to between 10 and 12 months,” Correia explained.

According to producers, it is possible to explore market niches with origins in Madeira, because the sea bream produced in this Portuguese water “has better flavour and consistency,” the regional secretary commented.

“The region’s marine aquaculture is concentrated in sea bream production, which is in full expansion. In 2005, nearly 37 tonnes were yielded, of which 26 tonnes were sold in Madeira and 11 tonnes exported,” Correia affirmed.

Meanwhile, in 2006 they produced around 126 tonnes of sea bream, of which 27 tonnes were commercialised in the region and the 99 remaining tonnes sold in Portugal.

Last year, Madeira produced 470 tonnes –187 tonnes of which were sold in the region and 283 tonnes off the island.

(source FIS)