After another voyage in the tallship Sagres, the famous Return Trip Moscatel arrived home last week in Azeitão.

On April 27th, the tallship Sagres sailed from Lisbon and passed through several ports in Africa, South America and arrived in Rio de Janeiro for the celebrations of the day of Portugal, on June 10th, hosted by the President of the Portuguese Republic. The ship carried a cask of Moscatel de Setúbal 1911, which has not been announced at the departure for secrecy reasons, one cask of Bastardinho 2011 and two of Moscatel de Setúbal 2016.

As Domingos Soares Franco, Vice-President and Senior winemaker of José Maria da Fonseca highlights “these casks will be opened in the next few weeks and tasted against the same wine that has been resting in our cellars in Azeitão – the testimony wines. Following previous experiments, we hope that the Moscatel de Setúbal and the Bastardinho – which sailed for the first time in the Sagres tallship – have achieved a superior quality, with a significant darker colour and distinct characteristics, making the wines smoother, more elegant and more complex. In summary we hope they have become unique and fantastic wines!”.

The Return Trip experiment took place in 2016, in 2015 during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, in 2010 when the ship sailed around the World, 2007 and 2000. During these 5 voyages, the superior quality of the wines was proven against the testimony wines of the same vintages that remained in the cellars of José Maria da Fonseca in Azeitão. The modern age Return Trip experiments have a scientific goal and are now resting in the company cellars in Azeitão. None of these wines is expected to be sold in the next decades and the casks will be showcased in the cellars for all of our visitors to see.
The winemaking team, led by Domingos Soares Franco, states that “the wines become softer more velvety, with a much higher level of complexity. They become truly extraordinary wines!”.