I love exploring wine regions and trying new wines and the newest region that I tried for the first time is an old region. It is the Peninsula de Setúbal located in the Southwest of Portugal. Most famous for their fortified Moscatel de Setúbal, which is very delicious, they also produce high quality still wines that are also great values. I was so impressed with the wine that I wrote my column in the Napa Valley Register about them which you can read here.

Living in the United States, we are exposed to many wines from around the world: France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Spain, to name a few countries. But, what about Portugal? I am familiar with the fortified wines of Madeira and Porto and have tasted some still wines from Alentejo and Dao. But when I was asked to organize some intimate events for the region of Setúbal, my curiosity was piqued.

The first challenge was saying Setúbal properly. After some practice with the Portuguese speakers, I was finally able to properly say it – “StUbal”. Remove the first “e” and stress the “u” and you, too, can sound like you speak Portuguese.