Casa Agrícola Horácio Simões
Setúbal
Singular fortified wines.
Just across the Tagus river from Lisbon, the Setúbal Peninsula extends out into the Atlantic. Here, the limestone and sandy soils of the middle coast continue, but without the mountains that trap cooler air further north. The result is sun backed, gentle rolling hills of chalk and clay, capable of making powerful yet incredibly balanced and saline fortified wines. Although largely forgotten by the wider world, the Moscatel wines of Setúbal represent a truly world class example of Portuguese dessert wines, which combine the saline minerality and savory nuances of Madeira, yet with a core of fruit that is more akin to Port.
Horácio Simões, located in the heart of the region, is one of the oldest family estates in Portugal, founded in 1910, and are one of the few remaining artisan producers of these incredible fortified wines. They work old vines of Moscatel de Setubal (the local name for Muscat of Alexandria) and the incredibly rare Moscatel Roxo (a pink color mutation of Muscat Blanc a Petits Grains), and vinify everything ultra-traditionally, macerating the wines on the skins for months, and aging them for