Portuguese Wine Archives

José Maria da Fonseca Alambre Moscatel de Setúbal 40 Years Portuguese fortified dessert wine. — Alambre Moscatel de Setúbal 40 Years. Click here for tasting notes.

Alambre Moscatel de Setúbal 40 Years Review

Alambre Moscatel de Setúbal is a fortified dessert wine from Portugal’s Setúbal Peninsula, just south of Lisbon. Produced by José Maria da Fonseca, one of Portugal’s oldest and most important wine houses, it offers an intriguing alternative to Port, Madeira, and sweet Sherry.

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A Note About Vintages

Although you will see vintage dates throughout Winervana, I don’t put too much importance on them. Major producers these days strive for a consistent style, and largely succeed. (Especially in California, aided by the usually even climate there.) For instance, when shopping for a particular wine, if you have a choice between a current release and one that’s a few years old, there will certainly be differences in price and the character of the wine. But upon release, those two examples of the same wine are likely to be quite similar, especially for New World producers, who often enjoy more reliably consistent weather than Old World producers do. (Of course, global climate change may disrupt things for everybody.)

Wine Enthusiast has an interesting post about this here.