Cellaring Moscatel de Setúbal

[Alan McDonald]

Does anybody else cellar Moscatels?

I do not have many and the oldest are 1981 Palmelas, followed by a few from early 2000s to the present. I also have some Samos (Greece) and Spanish moscatels, again from this century.

[Eric Ifune]

I've a few. Oldest is a 1900 JM Fonseca. Also have a couple of initial bottlings of the Trilogia. Some 1965. I've also a bottle of the 1912 Bastardinho. I have one bottle of Simones Excellent, the initial bottling. I'd like to have more.

[Mike K.]

I brought a few bottles back early this year and have been slowly working through them. Expect to open a Simones Excellent in the next few weeks, my last bottle.

Will be in Setúbal this spring and hope to bring back more for the cellar.

Any experience on how these age in the bottle?

[Moses Botbol]

I have a bottles from Portal, but I think they are around 2000 vintage? Drank some older JM Fonseca's that were great and well priced at the time. They age like the best of them.

[Alan McDonald]

Any experience on how these age in the bottle?

Extremely variable, between vintages as well as between producers.

I have been drinking down my cellar for about four months - we are on the market in the hope of retiring to the Azores and are not intending moving any wine. My son and grandchildren benefit from this decision. Following a bad fall a year ago, and old age generally, I am not coping too well with the increasing workload. We (my wife is my only help and is not becoming any younger either) are still dealing with an extremely late olive harvest and have so far picked twice as much as last year.

Some improve with age, others do not. The 1981 Palmelas have so far all been sound and clear with no sediment. Those since from the turn of the century - Sivipa (my favourite for drinking when released and soon afterwards), Thasos, Simoes, Fonseca and one or two others often throw a soft deposit that affects up to a quarter of the bottle no matter how carefully they are treated. All bottles have been stored upright since purchase. Some have a crystalline deposit, others, particularly Simoes and Thasos become cloudy. I have seen cloudy Thasos on the shelves of shops. I have a suspicion that the more modern vintages are not made to be cellared and that is why I made the OP.

The Spanish ones I have invariably have a crystalline deposit after about 5 years, but that is not a problem. The Samos (previous UK experience similar) remain clear and no deposit.

[Mike K.]

Simoes single cask releases are extremely murky, but do settle out after 6 months. Tasty regardless.

[Mahmoud Ali]

My oldest is a bottle of Jose Maria de Fonseca's 20 Year Old Moscatel du Setubal. It has a bottling date of 1989 and I drank a bottle in 2009, thereby making it a 20 year-old 20 Year Old. It was drop dead wonderful, superlative to be exact. I had been told when I bought it that they should be drunk young and fresh. Not heeding conventional wisdom I drank a few and cellared a pair. Clearly, they do reward cellaring. Since then I have bought a couple of vintage Moscatel du Setubal, the 2000, to see how they will fare with age.

Otherwise, I do have a Spanish 'Moscatel Oro' from De Muller in Tarragona. It is a non-vintage and came in a simple, non-descript bottle. I bought it in Calgary for something like C$8 and was never meant to age. That was back in 1993! Time flies. What will pour out of that bottle is anyone's guess.

Mahmoud.

[Eric Ifune]

For awhile, I had a case of JM Fonseca Moscatel de Setubal 25 year old. They no longer bottle this. The wine was probably 30 or 40 years old. They were nice, but a bit tired.