Península de Setúbal

The Setúbal (pronounced 'Shtooble') peninsula south of Lisbon is home to the two overlapping DOCs Setúbal and Palmela. The former produces a sweet, fortified wine (sometimes labelled Moscatel de Setúbal if it contains more than 85% Muscat). It is a noble, historic, copper-coloured wine to which grape spirit is added during fermentation so that it tastes like a cross between a southern French Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise and a tawny port. The peninsula and an equally big area to the south make up the recently created IGP Península de Setúbal, which is the source of some of Portugal's most exportable and exported dry red and white table wines. José Maria da Fonseca is a family firm which bottles blended table wines such as Periquita and Quinta de Camarate as well as being most famous as bottler of Lancers, Mateus' big pink rival. Pegos Claros is another dependable producer, of generally dense reds.