We went on the tour which we thought was extremely good value for the price paid. The guide was knowledgable and helpful. It is definitely worth paying the 5 euros as although you can wander around on your own, you would not get the same insight. Obviously it is geared to enticing you to buy the stuff at the end, but there is no hard sell its just left up to you. Tour lasts about 30 minutes with seemingly unlimited tastings at the end some of which were free, the more expensive ones had to be paid for by the glass. All in all a very interesting and enjoyable afternoon

This was a great way to spend a couple of hours on a cloudy afternoon. It's only EUR 4.50 entrance and you get a tour with a tour guide who explains everything. You then go to the tasting room and try some 3 and 5 year old wines.

If you suddenly feel like you're a Madeira conoisseur, you can then go to vintage room and try wines going back as far as 1860. You have to pay for these, but the ones post 1963 are inexpensive (about EUR 4.00 per glass). I bought a bottle of 1973 Verdelho for EUR 54.00 or you could buy a bottle of 1908 for EUR 720.00!

We really enjoyed our tour with the guide telling us about the history of the wine and winery, checking out everything in the museum, and then tasting all the different kinds of wine and picking our favorites. We even splurged on a taste from the vintage cellar! It is a pretty space, too.

I would fully recommend a trip to the Blandy's Wine Lodge before you buy any Madeira wine. As well as giving you the history of the wine they explain how it's made, the grapes used and explain the different types of wine available. Which is very helpful as they are so many different wines to buy. You are shown around the huge casks and old wine making equipment. The last part of the tour is the tasting. We were given 3 to try and plenty of time to drink them. They are short measures and you can try any of the 5 year old wines for free and the 10 year old wines cost 1 euro for a shot. They also have a shop for other items.

They prices seemed good but we did find a 10 year old wine a few euros cheaper in the supermarket - they only problem was getting back home due to the currant limitations on carry on luggage - we put ours in the suitcase, packed it well and it survived the journey home. Blandy's do a service where you can pay for the wine in the shop and pick it up at the airport after you have been through security, they have their own shop located their.