MAIN Wine Africa Madagascar

Off the eastern coast of Africa, Madagascar is an island nation in the Indian Ocean.

Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world and the 9th poorest country. Long known for vanilla beans, teas and peppers, the Swiss introduced grape vines in the 1970s.

Today, the main wine region is in the terraced mountains near Fianarantsoa with about 700 wineries located in Fianarantsoa and Ambalavo producing 2.3 million gallons of wine a year in the central Hauts Plateaux area.

Madagascar Travel Information Guide - Fianarantsoa - Good travel overview including the wine capital and its attractions including where to buy local wines in and around Fianarantsoa.

Fianarantsoa - A page on the city that speaks about the area and its attractions. One paragraph captures the wine facts,"...Lazan'i Betsileo. Still, it's not the only good wine from Fianarantsoa. You can taste for instance clos malaza, maromby, manomisoa, S.V.S., cotes de Fianar, zanatany, tsaralaza...."

Clos Malaza - The site is only available in French, but since many of the names of wines that English speakers recognize are French, the labels are informative. The pictures on the right hand side of each page give some idea of the activities and scenery at the winery.

Madagascar - To Ranomafana - This archived review of a visit to the Saovita winery in Madagascar includes plenty of pictures, but is a very unflattering view of the wine production methods...and the wines.

also see -> South Africa Wineries