Portuguese word meaning ‘hothouse’ or ‘stove’, also applied to the tanks used to heat wine on the Island of madeira, thereby accelerating its development and maturation. The heating process Itself is called estufagem. Estufas simulate the effects of the long tropical sea voyages in the 18th and 19th centuries when madeira (and setúbal) was, at first accidentally and then deliberately, stowed in the hold of a ship to age prematurely as a result of the temperature changes involved in a round trip, or torna viagem, across the tropics.
