Protected geographical indication (PGI) · Cider
Sidra da Madeira
Portugal’s protected cider name, from the mountain villages of Madeira — the one Portuguese cider tradition substantial enough to have been registered, and a designation almost every cider reference omits.
This record was taken as at 2026-08-23 and describes an instrument administered in Portugal.
- Kind
- Protected geographical indication (PGI)
- Product
- Cider
- Country
- Portugal
- Regions covered
- Stated in the specification
- Register
- EU register of geographical indications, file PGI-PT-02641, verified against the register on 2026-08-25. The registering regulation was published in OJ L 208 of 23 August 2023; the application was published in OJ C 156 of 3 May 2023.
- Record taken as at
- 2026-08-23
- Registered on
- 2020-10-14
CiderHQ records the structure of a specification: that it defines an area, that it restricts the fruit, that it sets a minimum strength or a sweetness band. Where a figure was not verified against the register itself, this page says a threshold exists and stops there rather than reproducing a number it cannot trace. Knowing that a limit is written down, and where it is written down, is worth more than a plausible figure.
Designation rules change. Specifications are amended, and the amendments do not announce themselves. Anyone relying on this commercially — labelling a product, drafting a claim, buying under the name — must read the current specification on the register itself rather than any summary of it, including this one.
Read the register: European Commission
What the specification requires
Each requirement is recorded as a claim with its jurisdiction, its as-of date and the source it rests on. Requirements that could not carry all three are not shown.
The protected name is reserved to cider from the autonomous region of Madeira.
Primary authority Portugal (EU geographical indication) · recorded as at 2026-08-23 · European Commission
The specification states the cultivars, production method and analytical limits the product must satisfy. CiderHQ has confirmed the registration against the register and has not been able to retrieve the specification itself, and records the existence of these requirements rather than their content.
Primary authority Portugal (EU geographical indication) · recorded as at 2026-08-23 · European Commission
About Sidra da Madeira
Portugal is a wine country in which cider is marginal, and Sidra da Madeira is the exception that carries a protected name. The tradition sits in the mountain villages of the island rather than on the mainland, where apples grow at altitudes the vine does not reach, and it is old enough and distinct enough to have been registered as a geographical indication in 2020.
It is included here mainly because almost nothing else includes it. English-language cider writing lists the French appellations, the Three Counties names, Asturias and Hessen, and stops; a Portuguese cider PGI registered in the same decade goes unmentioned. That is a gap in the literature rather than a judgement about the drink.
What the specification actually requires, CiderHQ cannot yet say. The registration is confirmed against the EU register; the Portuguese specification could not be retrieved, and this record states the fact of the requirements without inventing their content. Until it is read, this page is a pointer rather than an account.
What people ask next
Questions readers ask about the things this page mentions. Each one goes to the section that answers it rather than to a page written to receive the question.
- Is there portuguese cider — The substantial tradition is on Madeira rather than the mainland, in the island’s cooler upland parishes where apples are pressed and fermented. Mainland Portugal is a wine country and its cider sector is small, recent and craft-scale.
Where to go next
- All protected designations — Every reserved name on CiderHQ, grouped by country, with what each kind of instrument does.
- Cider and perry in Portugal — How cider is legally defined and taxed in the country administering this name.
- How CiderHQ handles evidence — Why a requirement here states a structure rather than a figure.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
eAmbrosia — the EU geographical indications register
European Commission · designation authority · registered as competent for this subject
The single authoritative register of EU PDO, PGI and TSG names, carrying each product specification. Cider and perry designations across France, Spain and elsewhere resolve here.