Moscatel de Setubal

Flying into Lisbon, it's an easy 35 minute trip, mostly on the bridge over the Tagus to get the city of Setubal. It's in this unlikely city on the Estuario do Sado that the winemakers produce Moscatel de Setubal, another in the interesting group of dessert wines we have been featuring this week.

100 years ago, Setubal was a booming fishing village, perhaps the sardine capital of the world. Today, most of the fishing industry has moved outside of Setubal to other local villages like Cascais, but as fishing has left, toursim has come in. It's close to Lisbon without the bustle of a big city, but sits right on the water -- actually an inlet from the Atlantic where the sea is quite inviting. And, in that sea, tourists have some of the best dolphin watching anywhere.

We love to watch dolphins, but we are really hear to drink wine. 

It's a bit curious that Moscatel ever arrived in Setubal. Originally, the white grape of choice in Egypt, it founds its way to this little peninsula hundreds of years ago. But, it mutated. And, when it did, the result was a purple grape, appropriately known as Moscatel de Setubal because at least to my knowledge, it grows nowhere else in the world.

The wines made from these grapes are produced much like port. Initially, it is fermented for 4 to 5 with yeast. But, then, the fermentation is stopped by the addition of aguardente vinica, a local brandy bringing the wine to an alcohol level usually around 18% by volume. And, the wine is quite sweet, but in a way similar to a tawny port as compared to an eiswein, for example.

We're fortunate enough to be served quite a collection of bottles of this wine. Looking for common features, they are all quite rich and have the feel of slowly dripping honey coating our palates. Unlike tawny ports, we do not get the heavy raisin notes, however. Instead, we get lots of mandarion orange, apricot, honey, gooey caramel and ... wait for it ... something we almost never find when tasting grape wine ... grapes.

Pair this wine with gooey cheese or fondue. Or, pick a dessert that would be improved by drizzling it with caramel. And, in order to get the full flavor, don't serve this wine too colld. Cellar temperature, that is about 15C/59F should be plenty cold enough.