Editing Madeira wine (section)

=== Rainwater ===
A style called "Rainwater" is one of the largest-selling styles of Madeira in the United States, most commonly drunk as an apéritif. Nowadays it is almost always an inexpensive medium-dry style of wine made entirely from Tinta Negra grapes, and aged for around three years including a period in an estufa, but Barbeito continues to produce a more expensive Rainwater in the old pre-phylloxera style by blending Sercial and Verdelho grapes.

Accounts conflict as to how this style was developed and named. The most common one derives from the vineyards on the steep hillsides, where [[irrigation (wine)|irrigation]] was difficult, and the vines were dependent on the local rainwater for survival. Another involves a shipment destined for the [[Thirteen Colonies|American colonies]] that was accidentally diluted by rainwater while it sat on the docks in Savannah, Georgia, or Funchal. Rather than dump the wines, the merchants tried to pass it off as a "new style" of Madeira and were surprised at its popularity among the Americans.<ref name="Sotheby pg 340-341"/> Another story relates that a gentleman in Savannah, Georgia tasted such a Madeira and declared, "This is as fine as Rainwater."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tuten |first1=James |title='Have Some Madeira, M'dear': The Unique History of Madeira Wine and its Consumption in the Atlantic World |journal=Juniata Voices |year=2008 |volume=8 |pages=55–61|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=60272213&site=eds-live&scope=site |access-date=22 February 2018}}</ref>