The Bastardinho de Azeitão 40 Years Old is a unique fortified wine that blends vintages between 40 and 80 years old. This extraordinary wine is now being released and these will be the last drops of this famous wine from José Maria da Fonseca.

The Bastardinho de Azeitão has been produced since the XIX century by José Maria da Fonseca. The grapes that make the blend originated from properties located on the south bank of the Tejo River and due to the growth of real estate in the area, the vineyards were finally uprooted during the 80s. In the harvest of 1983 José Maria da Fonseca received the last quantity of this grapes that were planted in vineyards over 90 years old.

After a very long ageing time in oak casks, the Bastardinho de Azeitão (Trousseau grape variety), is now down to the last 2300 liters of this exquisite wine. Previously sold with ages of 20, 25, and 30 years old, the style of the wine could no longer be replicated as the base wine had already aged more than the previous blends, so Domingos Soares Franco, the senior winemaker of José Maria da Fonseca, decided to blend a 40 Years Old, which includes wines ranging from 40 years to 80 years old. According to Domingos Soares Franco this Bastardinho de Azeitão is “one of the wines that I felt more emotionally attached to as this is true history in a bottle of wine”.

The Bastardinho de Azeitão 40 Years Old is a wine with intense and complex aromas, with great depth and a very long and balanced finish, due to the elegant acidity that the wine still holds.

José Maria da Fonseca planted in 2005 half a hectare of this grape in one of its vineyards, but only in about 100 years from now we will be able to confirm if the will produced from these grapes will match in quality the one that is being released now.