The Moscatel de Setúbal region was demarcated in 1907 and regulated by decree the following year. It is the second oldest demarcated region in Portugal, after the Douro, and it sits on the far side of the Tagus, south of Lisbon.
1907
The demarcation came in 1907. The regulation covering production and trade followed in 1908, signed by D. Manuel II, the last king of Portugal.
There are records of muscat wine on the peninsula from the 13th century. The demarcation invented nothing. It drew a border around something that had been there for six hundred years.
The appellation is called Setúbal. The label almost always says Moscatel de Setúbal, which is the name everybody uses anyway.
Two grapes, and one nearly vanished
Moscatel de Setúbal is Muscat of Alexandria, also known locally as Moscatel Graúdo. It is the white grape of the region and the base of nearly everything bottled there.
The other is Moscatel Roxo, with smaller berries and a pink skin. After phylloxera, in the 19th century, almost no vines of it were left. José Maria da Fonseca started planting it again and other producers followed.
Today Roxo covers a little over 40 hectares in the whole region. It began on the north-facing slopes of the Arrábida, on limestone. In the 1980s it was moved to the sands of Palmela to keep up with demand.
The rules require a minimum of 85 per cent Moscatel in the must.
The step that sets this muscat apart
Fermentation is stopped with wine spirit, between 52 and 86 per cent alcohol. The sugar that has not yet fermented stays in the wine. So far this is what they do in Porto and in Jerez.
What belongs to Setúbal comes next. Once fortified, the wine is left to macerate with the grape skins for five to six months.
The aroma of muscat lives in the skins. Alcohol pulls it out better than must alone does. That is where the orange peel and raisin smell comes from, the one you recognise with your eyes shut.
The law sets no length for this maceration. Each producer decides how long to run it, and none of them skips it.
Superior, 20 years, 40 years
Minimum ageing is 18 months in wood. It used to be two years.
The Superior mention requires five years and approval by a tasting panel. Age statements run from 10 to 40 years, and the number refers to the youngest wine in the blend.
The finished wine sits between 16 and 22 per cent alcohol. Sugar is around 280 grams per litre up to 20 years and reaches 340 above that.
A five-year-old muscat tastes of orange, apricot and honey. A 40-year-old is dark, with raisin, caramel and walnut, and the acidity is still underneath holding it all up.
Limestone, sand and little rain
The Serra da Arrábida is limestone. The natural park was created by Decree-Law 622/76 of 28 July, covering about 10,800 hectares, and the high point is the Formosinho at 501 metres.
The north-facing slopes catch the Atlantic breeze. That is where the fruit ripens without losing its acidity.
Inland the soil turns to sand. The climate is Mediterranean and rainfall runs between 400 and 500 millimetres a year, less than half what falls on the Minho.
Azeitão and Pegões
José Maria da Fonseca was founded in 1834, in Vila Nogueira de Azeitão. The founder was born in Vilar Seco, Nelas, on 31 May 1804. The Moscatel de Setúbal brand dates from 1849 and Periquita from 1850.
Adega de Pegões is a different story. The Cooperativa Agrícola de Santo Isidro de Pegões was set up in 1958, inside the Pegões settlement scheme, the only one south of the Tagus.
The scheme began in 1938, with 204 houses built on an estate of 7,000 hectares. The cooperative today has around 90 members and 1,117 hectares of vineyard, on sands known there as the Pliocénio de Pegões.
How it is served
A bottle of moscatel is stored standing up, unlike nearly every other bottle. That is the advice of the regional wine commission of the Setúbal Peninsula.
The deposit that gathers at the bottom is normal and comes with age.
As an aperitif, serve it at 10 or 12 degrees. With dessert, between 12 and 16. Colder than that and the chill covers the aroma, which is precisely what you are paying for.
Which desserts
With queijo de Azeitão. Raw sheep's milk curdled with the flower of the wild thistle, Cynara cardunculus, cured for 20 days at 10 to 12 degrees. It comes from the same hills as the wine.
With egg and almond sweets, the rule is that the wine has to be sweeter than the dessert. A young moscatel loses to an almond tart. A 20-year-old holds its ground.
With dark chocolate, Moscatel Roxo does better than the white, being finer and less sweet in the mouth.
Fado ao Carmo has two houses in Lisbon, in Chiado and in Alfama, with different wine lists, and there is moscatel and other wine from the Setúbal peninsula in both. Tables can be booked here.