Moscatel

Moscatel de Setúbal is Portugal's classic fortified Muscat, a sweet amber-to-orange wine made on the Setúbal Peninsula just south of Lisbon, across the Tagus and Sado estuaries. It is pressed from Muscat of Alexandria — known locally as Moscatel de Setúbal — with a little of the rare purple Moscatel Roxo, fortified with grape spirit part-way through fermentation to keep it sweet, then given its signature step: the wine is steeped on the aromatic muscat skins for months after fortification, drawing out an intense, marmalade-and-orange-blossom perfume. Aged oxidatively in old wood, it turns deep amber, and with decades in cask it becomes a treacly, raisined nectar. It smells of orange peel, dried apricot and honey and tastes richly sweet yet lifted by fresh acidity; served cool, it is a benchmark dessert wine and a natural match for orange desserts, dried fruit and blue cheese.