Jose Maria da Fonseca - Portugal's Oldest Table Wine Producer

How to Complete

4 steps curated by Wine Memories

1. 📜 1

   Find the Tobacco Heir Who Bottled a Revolution

   history Free

   The story of how a mathematics graduate changed Portuguese wine forever — in 1850.

   José Maria da Fonseca (1804–1884), son of a rich tobacco merchant, graduated in mathematics from Coimbra and did something his entire industry thought was mad: he bottled his wine instead of selling it in barrels. In 1850, Periquita became Portugal's first bottled table wine — a century before the country even had wine laws. The King of Portugal, Pedro V, later bestowed the Order of the Tower and Sword "in recognition of their modernity, cleanliness and efficiency." At the winery entrance (Rua José Augusto Coelho 11/13), ask your guide: "What did the King of Portugal give this winery?" Watch the pride in the answer. The plaque hangs in the entrance hall.

   🔄 BACKUP: The museum portraits of José Maria himself hang in the reception. Look for a man with a very serious expression who looks exactly like someone who would bet a tobacco fortune on a glass bottle.

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2. 🍷 2

   Stand Inside the Cellar Where 1900 Still Breathes

   wine $

   The Adega dos Teares Velhos holds Moscatel barrels over 100 years old. Touch the wood.

   You are about to enter a room that holds Moscatel barrels from before Portugal became a republic (1910). The Trilogia Moscatel — only 13,926 bottles ever made — blends the 1900 vintage (15%) with 1934 (15%) and 1965 (70%). When you reach the Adega dos Teares Velhos ("Old Looms Cellar") on the cellar tour (€10/person, book via enoturismo@jmfonseca.pt), place your hand on one of the oldest-looking barrels and ask your guide: "Does any wine from 1900 still exist here?" The answer — yes, inside some of these barrels, as part of older blends — is the moment. The cellar smells of decades of evaporation called "the angels' share."

   🔄 BACKUP: Even if the guide doesn't know specific vintages, ask to see the event hall set among the barrels for candlelit dinners. The contrast of oak barrels and dining tables answers all questions about what wine means in Portugal.

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3. 🍷 3

   Taste 1900 + 1934 + 1965 in a Single Glass

   wine $$

   Ask for the Trilogia Moscatel. One of 13,926 bottles blending three generations of the same cellar.

   The Trilogia Moscatel de Setúbal blends the 1900 vintage (15%), 1934 vintage (15%), and 1965 vintage (70%), chosen after a blind tasting of the entire Fonseca private library. Total production: 13,926 bottles, released October 1999. At the tasting table or Wine Corner restaurant (~€20-25/person), ask specifically: "Do you have the Trilogia on the tasting menu today?" It arrives amber-brown, thick, smelling of fig, caramel, walnut and something ancient you cannot name. Ask: "Can you describe the 1900 component?" The guide will tell you those grapes were harvested when King Carlos I still ruled Portugal.

   🔄 BACKUP: If Trilogia is unavailable, ask for the 40-year Alambre Moscatel — it also contains the 1900 vintage. The difference between 5 years and 30 years of barrel aging is the most visceral wine education in Portugal.

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4. ⛰️ 4

   Toast the Phoenicians at the Pasmados Fountain

   Optional

   adventure Free

   They founded this town ~1000 BC and planted the first vines. The wine in your glass is their direct descendant.

   The Phoenicians founded Setúbal around 1000 BC and used the Sado estuary — 8 km from the Pasmados fountain beside the winery entrance — as their wine trading hub. The Setúbal Peninsula may be the birthplace of the first grapevines in all of Iberia, planted 4000 years ago. Take your tasting glass (or buy a bottle from the shop — €10-15 range is excellent value) to the fountain on Rua José Augusto Coelho. Raise it. You are toasting 4000 years of the same peninsula, the same grape, the same sea. The drive back to Costa da Caparica (31 km north) passes limestone cliffs and emerald coves where dolphins live — stop at Portinho da Arrábida beach if the light is right.

   🔄 BACKUP: Walk to Casa das Tortas on the main street for local spongy sweet pastry and Moscatel — the traditional Azeitão pairing. The Azeitão DOP sheep's milk cheese completes the picture of eating like a 19th-century tobacco merchant's son.

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