It's fitting that on an island renowned for its fortified wine, I'm lying in a bath filled with it, the purple liquid making islands of my knees and lapping at my chin like I'm some kind of goddess. True, these grapes - or more precisely grape skin and vine-leaf extracts - aren't the varieties found here on Madeira. They're pinotage grapes from South Africa's Stellenbosch wine region, where 'vinotherapy' was born, but it all ties in rather nicely.
Whether you imbibe it or bathe in it, wine is part of the Madeira experience.
Although many travellers have heard of Madeira, few can point to it on a map. This could be because of its relative isolation from its mother country, Portugal. Covering 741 square kilometres, the island, part of an archipelago of the same name and the birthplace of footballing great Cristiano Ronaldo, sits in the Atlantic 600 kilometres west of Morocco and 850 kilometres southwest of Portugal.
It was discovered in 1419 by Portuguese explorers, whose ship had been blown off course. Instead of navigating the west coast of Africa they came upon this 'pearl of the Atlantic', with forests, exotic flowers and wildlife, perched on steep black volcanic slopes. The word 'madeira' means wood or timber in Portuguese.
The island's year-round mild climate suited Portuguese settlers and soon the island's fertile volcanic soil was turned into farmland. The settlers' hand-tilled vineyards, on small plots of land called poios (terraces), still cling to the mountains.
Like most fortified wines, madeira is topped up with grape brandy to keep it from spoiling. What makes the wine unique is its maturation process. It is warmed gently, traditionally by the heat of the sun. This method was discovered by another quirk of maritime fate. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Madeira's wine was sold along trade routes in the Americas and Asia. When an unsold shipment was returned to the island, wine producers agreed the taste had improved markedly during the voyages in temperate climes.