Moscatel de Setúbal

Moscatel de Setúbal has been made on the peninsula since at least the eighteenth century and was given a demarcated region in 1907, one of the oldest in the world. The method is what distinguishes it: the fermenting must is fortified with grape spirit to stop it, as in port, but then the muscat skins are left macerating in the fortified wine for five or six months, which pulls out the aromatic compounds that give the wine its intensity of orange peel, raisin, honey and dried apricot. It is then aged in wood, often for many years, and old bottlings of twenty, forty and more years are made and sold. There is a rarer Moscatel Roxo from a pink-skinned clone. José Maria da Fonseca at Azeitão, founded in 1834 and still family-run, is the best-known house and takes visitors, and Bacalhôa and others operate nearby.

What you actually see

• The skin maceration - muscat skins left in the fortified wine for five or six months.
• The 1907 demarcation - among the oldest protected wine regions in the world.
• The old bottlings - twenty and forty year wines from long wood ageing.
• The Azeitão cellars - José Maria da Fonseca and others taking visitors.

When to go

Year-round; harvest in late summer. One to two hours per cellar. Tours and tastings need booking at most houses.

Honest expectations

It is a sweet fortified wine at around seventeen to twenty per cent - a small glass is the serving. Cellar visits need arranging in advance. Old bottlings are expensive. Azeitão and Palmela need a car or a tour from Lisbon.

Nearby

Azeitão also makes the sheep cheese; Palmela castle is above the vineyards.