Moscatel of Setúbal – Sun In a Bottle!

If Port and Madeira are Portugal’s celebrated fortified wines, Moscatel de Setúbal is its glorious open secret. Made just south of Lisbon from sun-loving Muscat grapes, it is a fortified sweet wine of orange peel, honey and dried fruit — aged for years, sometimes decades, into liquid amber. Connoisseurs adore it; the wider world is only beginning to catch on¹.

Portugal’s other fortified wine

Moscatel de Setúbal comes from the Setúbal Peninsula, on the limestone slopes of the Serra da Arrábida just across the Tagus from Lisbon — one of Portugal’s historic demarcated wine regions, defined more than a century ago³. The wine is built on the Muscat of Alexandria grape, known locally as Moscatel de Setúbal, with the rare pink-skinned Moscatel Roxo used in a few precious bottlings¹.

Like Port, it is a fortified wine: grape spirit is added to halt the fermentation while the wine is still lusciously sweet. But what happens next is what sets Setúbal apart.

Sun in a bottle

The signature of Moscatel de Setúbal is a step most fortified wines skip. After fortification, the winemakers return the intensely aromatic Muscat grape skins to the wine and let them steep for up to six months, so the wine drinks in every drop of the grape’s heady perfume⁴.

“Sun in a bottle.”— on Moscatel de Setúbal⁵

Then comes the wait. The wine spends years in oak — typically at least five, often far longer — turning a deep amber-orange and developing its unmistakable flavours of candied orange peel, honey, raisins and warm spice². It is a wine that seems to bottle the Portuguese sun itself.

José Maria da Fonseca and the aged Moscatels

The wine’s modern fame belongs above all to one house. José Maria da Fonseca, founded at Azeitão in 1834, is the oldest company making table wine on an industrial scale in Portugal, and it is credited with shaping Moscatel de Setúbal into the style we know today⁵.

Fonseca and its neighbours became famous for something extraordinary: releasing Moscatels with astonishing barrel age. Bottles matured for twenty, forty or more years — concentrated, nutty and impossibly complex — place old Moscatel de Setúbal among the great aged wines of the world, for a fraction of the price of comparable rarities⁶.

A hidden gem

Setúbal has never had the marketing might of Port or the romance of Madeira, and for years it was overshadowed at home and abroad⁶.

But its quality is undeniable, and a new generation of drinkers is discovering what the Portuguese have long known: that this honeyed, orange-scented wine is one of the country’s hidden treasures. Poured after dinner, cool and golden, Moscatel de Setúbal is exactly what its admirers call it — sunshine, captured in a glass¹.

Frequently asked questions

Read more

• Taylor’s: a Port house since 1692
• The history of Madeira wine
• The story of Tokaji

References

1. Wine Folly — Moscatel de Setúbal. ↑
2. Wines of Portugal — Moscatel wine. ↑
3. Wine-Searcher — Setúbal wine region. ↑
4. The Buyer — Moscatel de Setúbal: the fortified FOMO you can’t ignore. ↑
5. stbl.pt — Moscatel de Setúbal: Portugal’s Famous Sweet Wine. ↑
6. The Wine Wiki — A Guide to Portuguese Moscatel de Setúbal Wine. ↑

Recommended reading

Vintage: The Story of Wine

Hugh Johnson

A grand history of wine that places Portugal’s fortified treasures — Port, Madeira and Moscatel — in context.

A Short History of Wine

Rod Phillips

A clear survey of the world’s wines, including Portugal’s distinctive fortified styles.

As an Amazon Associate, This Day in Wine History earns from qualifying purchases. Book recommendations are chosen independently.