Setúbal & Arrábida

Moscatel de Setúbal: fortified, orange-peel sweet and a bargain.

Grapey Muscat of Alexandria, fortified and left on its skins, then aged in wood. Young ones taste of orange blossom and apricot; older ones of caramel, fig and nuts. Serve chilled.

Grapey Muscat of Alexandria, fortified and left on its skins, then aged in wood. Young ones taste of orange blossom and apricot; older ones of caramel, fig and nuts. Serve chilled.

Palmela DOC: soft, cherry-fruited Castelão reds from sandy plains and Arrábida slopes.

The peninsula's dry red, built on Castelão and often topped up with Syrah or Cabernet. Young bottles are supple and easy; the best have earthy depth and age well.

The peninsula's dry red, built on Castelão and often topped up with Syrah or Cabernet. Young bottles are supple and easy; the best have earthy depth and age well.

Choco frito (fried cuttlefish) with a dry Arinto or Fernão Pires white.

Setúbal's signature dish: the acidity and citrus of the local white cut the frying oil and match the sweet seafood.

Setúbal's signature dish: the acidity and citrus of the local white cut the frying oil and match the sweet seafood.

Celebration: Alambre 20 Anos, Trilogia or Domini Plus.

The local high end: a 20-year Moscatel, the prestige Trilogia blend or the premium Castelão-Syrah red.

The local high end: a 20-year Moscatel, the prestige Trilogia blend or the premium Castelão-Syrah red.

Off the beaten path: Moscatel Roxo.

The rare pink-skinned Muscat, with rose-petal perfume, from Fonseca or Bacalhôa.

The rare pink-skinned Muscat, with rose-petal perfume, from Fonseca or Bacalhôa.

Palmela DOC = Castelão reds; Península de Setúbal = everything else, including most whites.

The wider regional label, formerly Terras do Sado, covers dry whites, rosés and reds that fall outside the DOC rules. Don't read it as lower quality.

The wider regional label, formerly Terras do Sado, covers dry whites, rosés and reds that fall outside the DOC rules. Don't read it as lower quality.

Sandy plains give soft, fruity Castelão.

Most of Palmela is deep sand with little fertility, which stresses vines into small, concentrated berries. The sand is also naturally resistant to the vine pest phylloxera.

Most of Palmela is deep sand with little fertility, which stresses vines into small, concentrated berries. The sand is also naturally resistant to the vine pest phylloxera.

Adega de Pegões: co-op Castelão off sandy soils, a textbook Palmela red.

A big growers' co-operative on the sandy plains. Its selected-harvest Castelão is cherry-fruited and supple at a very fair price.

A big growers' co-operative on the sandy plains. Its selected-harvest Castelão is cherry-fruited and supple at a very fair price.

Bacalhôa Palmela Reserva: structured Castelão from a leading Setúbal house.

The house behind the Renaissance palace estate makes a Palmela Reserva with real grip and ageing ability. A step up in price and structure from everyday Castelão.

The house behind the Renaissance palace estate makes a Palmela Reserva with real grip and ageing ability. A step up in price and structure from everyday Castelão.

Aged Moscatel or Roxo with blue cheese, dried fruit and nuts.

The salty cheese and the caramelled wine are a classic sweet-and-salty pairing.

The salty cheese and the caramelled wine are a classic sweet-and-salty pairing.

Moscatel Roxo de Setúbal: the rare pink-skinned Muscat, with rose petals.

A scarce grape and a small production. Longer in wood than the white version, it is deeper and more perfumed, with rose petal over concentrated dried fruit.

A scarce grape and a small production. Longer in wood than the white version, it is deeper and more perfumed, with rose petal over concentrated dried fruit.

Bacalhôa Moscatel de Setúbal Roxo: the other house's take on the rare grape.

Pink-skinned Muscat from Arrábida, with floral lift over dried fruit. Good to compare with Fonseca's Roxo.

Pink-skinned Muscat from Arrábida, with floral lift over dried fruit. Good to compare with Fonseca's Roxo.

Time in wood and on skins makes a Moscatel.

A good Moscatel is built after the harvest: skin soaking in the fortified wine, then years in cask. Age statements tell you how long.

The quality of Moscatel de Setúbal has little to do with the vintage and a lot to do with what happens next. After fortification, the skins stay in the wine for a long soak, which pulls out the floral and orange-peel aromatics that distinguish this wine from other fortified Muscats. The wine then goes into wood for years, where slow oxidation moves it from gold to amber and from fresh fruit to caramel, fig and nuts. Wines are often blended across years so a house can keep a consistent style, and the age statement on the label is a statement about that blend. This is a big part of why aged Setúbal is such good value for what it is. When choosing, the question to ask is not which year, but which age and which house.

Datado is one vintage, Não Datado a blend, Superior means extra age.

Moscatel is sold either as a dated vintage or as a blend of years. Age statements (5 Anos, 20 Anos) and the word Superior signal more time in wood.

Reading an aged Moscatel label takes three words. Datado means the wine is from a single dated harvest and is aged and released as such; Não Datado means a blend of several harvests, which is how most house wines are made. Superior is a quality tier for wines that have had extra ageing and passed a tasting panel's top mark, and Reserva is a lower rung that signals the panel's approval without the extra age. On top of the official terms, houses add their own age statements: Alambre 5 Anos and 20 Anos are José Maria da Fonseca's way of telling you the average age of the blend. If a label has no age statement, the wine is probably young, golden and fruity. If you want the older, caramel, nutty style, look for Superior or an age statement of at least 10 or 20 years. Roxo on the label is a separate cue for the rare pink-skinned grape.

José Maria da Fonseca Alambre 20 Anos: oxidative, caramel and orange peel.

Twenty years of age statement. Dark amber, nutty, spiced and long: the aged end of the Moscatel range.

The 20 Anos is the Moscatel at its most grown-up. An age statement on a Setúbal label means a blend whose average age is that number, so this is wine that has spent two decades in wood, long enough for the grapey freshness of a young Moscatel to turn into something closer to a tawny Port or a Rutherglen Muscat. Colour moves from gold to deep amber. The orange peel is still there, but it sits among caramel, toasted nuts, dried fig, baking spice and a savoury edge. Sweetness is high, yet the wine finishes long and clean. Compare it side by side with the 5 Anos and you taste the entire arc of the style in one sitting. It keeps for weeks once opened, so it is a sensible gift for someone who will not finish a bottle in one night. Serve slightly cool, in small glasses, with blue cheese, almond tarts or on its own after dinner.

José Maria da Fonseca Trilogia: the prestige Moscatel cuvée.

The house's flagship Moscatel cuvée: caramel, dried apricot and nuts from long wood ageing. Priced as the top of the range.

Trilogia sits at the top of the Fonseca Moscatel ladder. It is a prestige cuvée, built from long-aged wine, and it shows what extended time in wood does to Muscat of Alexandria: the grapey top notes fall away and caramel, dried apricot, walnut and orange marmalade take over, with a long, balanced finish. It is priced well above the Alambre wines, but still modest beside most rare aged fortified wines. Think of it as the Setúbal equivalent of a good 30-year tawny or an aged Rutherglen Muscat: a bottle for the end of a special dinner, or to give to someone who collects sweet and fortified wines. Because the exact blending details are the house's own, treat the name as the cue and ask at the winery or shop what the average age is. Like the Alambre wines, it can be kept open for weeks.

José Maria da Fonseca Domini Plus: Castelão and Syrah, the house's serious red.

A premium Palmela blend that shows how far Castelão can go with a partner and some wood.

Domini Plus is the bottle to open when someone says Setúbal only makes sweet wine and cheap reds. It is a premium red from José Maria da Fonseca built on Castelão with Syrah, two grapes that Palmela's rules allow together, but given a more serious treatment than the Periquita range: with a price to match. The point of drinking it is the comparison. Taste it next to Periquita Reserva and you see what the grape can do in a premium bottling: darker cherry, firmer tannin, a savoury, earthy note and the structure to improve in bottle. Castelão is known for softness, but it is also a grape that can age, and this is the Fonseca family's argument for it. Serve it with roast lamb or duck, and give it air.

José Maria da Fonseca Moscatel Roxo: the rare pink-skinned Muscat, wood-aged for years.

A scarce grape, a long spell in cask, a rose-petal scent over concentrated dried fruit. The bottle that makes Setúbal cellar visits worth it.

Moscatel Roxo is a pink-skinned mutation of Muscat of Alexandria, very rare on the peninsula, so every bottle is a small production. It is made the Setúbal way: the wine is fortified, the skins soak in it for a long spell, and the result then rests in wood for years before release. The Roxo cuvée gets even longer in cask than the white. In the glass it is deeper and more complex than the standard Moscatel: rose petal on top, then concentrated raisin, fig and caramel, with the characteristic orange peel running underneath. It is sweet, but acidity and spirit keep it from feeling heavy, and it is made for after-dinner sipping with almond sweets or aged cheese. José Maria da Fonseca bottles a Roxo, as does Bacalhôa. Buy it as a talking-point gift.

Moscatel Roxo: a rare pink-skinned Muscat with rose-petal perfume.

A natural mutation of Muscat of Alexandria with very little planted. It gives the deepest, most perfumed Setúbal wines.

Moscatel Roxo is a natural pink-skinned mutation of Muscat of Alexandria. Very little is planted on the peninsula, so it is a minor grape even in Setúbal. Its pink skins give the fortified wine more colour, more extraction and a different perfume from the white version: roses and spiced orange peel alongside the usual honey and apricot. Because the variety is scarce, producers often bottle it as its own cuvée, with a longer rest in wood than the standard Moscatel. In a tasting it is the one that stops conversation, but it is also the best test of whether you like the Setúbal style: if the Roxo seems too intense, start with the 5 Anos. Check the label for the word Roxo.

Sandy plains give soft, fruity Castelão.

Most of Palmela is deep sand with little fertility, which stresses vines into small, concentrated berries. The sand is also naturally resistant to the vine pest phylloxera.

Most of Palmela is deep sand with little fertility, which stresses vines into small, concentrated berries. The sand is also naturally resistant to the vine pest phylloxera.

In the glass: Supple tannins, ripe cherry fruit, soft body

Arrábida slopes bring structure and freshness.

The hills rise to about 500 metres, with clay-limestone soils and Atlantic breezes. Fruit here is cooler, with more structure and a mineral edge.

The hills rise to about 500 metres, with clay-limestone soils and Atlantic breezes. Fruit here is cooler, with more structure and a mineral edge.

In the glass: More structure, minerality and acidity than the plains

Sea and river air keep acidity in a hot climate.

The Atlantic and the Sado and Tagus estuaries moderate summer heat, helping both reds and whites hold freshness.

The Atlantic and the Sado and Tagus estuaries moderate summer heat, helping both reds and whites hold freshness.

In the glass: Fresher, less jammy wines than the heat suggests

Time in wood and on skins makes a Moscatel.

A good Moscatel is built after the harvest: skin soaking in the fortified wine, then years in cask. Age statements tell you how long.

The quality of Moscatel de Setúbal has little to do with the vintage and a lot to do with what happens next. After fortification, the skins stay in the wine for a long soak, which pulls out the floral and orange-peel aromatics that distinguish this wine from other fortified Muscats. The wine then goes into wood for years, where slow oxidation moves it from gold to amber and from fresh fruit to caramel, fig and nuts. Wines are often blended across years so a house can keep a consistent style, and the age statement on the label is a statement about that blend. This is a big part of why aged Setúbal is such good value for what it is. When choosing, the question to ask is not which year, but which age and which house.

In the glass: Floral lift when young; caramel, marmalade, nut and fig with age

Fortify, then soak the skins: the step that defines Moscatel de Setúbal.

Grape spirit is added early to keep the sugar, and the skins stay in the wine afterwards. That soak gives the strong floral, orange-peel scent.

Grape spirit is added early to keep the sugar, and the skins stay in the wine afterwards. That soak gives the strong floral, orange-peel scent.

In the glass: Floral intensity, orange peel and texture

Aged in old wood, sold young or old.

Moscatel rests in cask until bottling, as a single vintage or a blend of years. The longer it stays, the darker and nuttier it gets.

Moscatel rests in cask until bottling, as a single vintage or a blend of years. The longer it stays, the darker and nuttier it gets.

In the glass: Gold to amber; apricot to caramel, fig and nuts

Torna-viagem: Moscatel that sailed to Brazil and back.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, barrels travelled by ship to Brazil and returned. The heat and movement concentrated the wine.

Torna-viagem means 'return trip'. In the 18th and 19th centuries Moscatel de Setúbal was shipped across the Atlantic to Brazil and back, and the wine that came home was darker, more concentrated and more complex than wine that had stayed on land. The tradition links Setúbal to Madeira and to the world of heated, oxidative fortified wines, and it explains why so much emphasis is put on age: the market has always rewarded wine that has had a long journey. The sea voyages ended long ago, but the idea survives in the cellars of the peninsula, where wines are aged for years in wood rather than bottled young. It is also the nearest thing the region has to a 'rediscovered tradition' for new-wave drinkers, though today's sea-aged claims should be treated as marketing unless the producer explains the details.

In the glass: Historically darker, richer, more oxidative wine; now a heritage reference

Co-operatives make much of the everyday wine.

Large growers' co-ops such as Adega de Pegões and Adega de Palmela are reliable, low-priced sources of Castelão and Moscatel.

Large growers' co-ops such as Adega de Pegões and Adega de Palmela are reliable, low-priced sources of Castelão and Moscatel.

In the glass: Clean, fruity, consistent wines at fair prices