Across the street is Jose Maria da Fonseca. This is one of Portugal’s most prestigious wine companies, still run by the same family (6 generations now) since 1834.
We toured the house and museum, and then walked through the gardens to the cellars.
They have many aged wines, including Periquita, Portugal’s oldest red wine.
Their speciality are the Moscatels. They accidentally discovered one day that some of the barrels sent by sea to Brazil and then returned, tasted vastly better than the ones that from the same batch still in the cellar. They believe that the constant moving of the barrels at sea swirled the wines enough that the aging process accelerated.
In the ‘Moscatel Cathedral’, where there are barrels as old as the company itself, there is also a chandelier made by a retring cooper from barrel metal. But the best part… they play Gregorian Chants to the wine! The belief is that those chants create certain vibrations in the Moscatel that is the same as swirling it around.
And the spider webs everywhere? The spiders eat the bugs that will eat the barrel wood!
And then finished with a wine tasting. João even got us a little ‘extra’ of the better Moscatel!
It is a good morning so far!
