The Wanderer's Chronicles: Wine Chronicles | Wine Tasting at Fernão Pó Winery (Palmela)

The wine region of Setúbal's peninsula (Portugal) is close to Lisbon and presents great wines from well established producers, with variety of wine tourism activities. I've recently visited some wineries in Palmela area. Fernão Pó was one of them and today I'm bringing to you some more information on it (and on its wines).

Fernão Pó is a family winery, resulting from the joining of two families related to winemaking for generations. Since its founding in the '50s, the winery has grown keeping its roots in the local winemaking tradition. João, one of the owners, reminds the visitors that then, wine was inseparable from food and sold at the cellar door. Buyers stock up for the whole year and became friends.

Today, Fernão Pó Winery seeks to combine the best of tradition with modern technology, while strongly committed to social and environmental principles, such as adherence to the Wine in Moderation and the Business and Biodiversity programs, in addition to producing grapes with environmental certification.

The grape varieties cultivated on the estate were carefully chosen, in search of genuine profiled, complex gourmet wines. On the 150 acres of the family vineyards stand out 84 acres of Castelão, the flagship grape of the region. But also spicy Cabernet Sauvignon, which ripens perfectly here. And also Syrah, Touriga Nacional, Merlot, Tannat and Alicante Bouschet. White grape varieties include local Fernão Pires, Syria, Verdelho, Viozinho and Moscatel.

At Fernão Pó, you can schedule a guided visit to the winery and wine tasting. On my visit, we were invited to a tasting of 3 of their wines that were paired with Tibornas (a Portuguese traditional recipe resembling Bruschettas) and with crackers with the winery's special wine jams. The tasting started with a glass of ASF White DOC Palmela (Viosinho), a Silver Medal at Mundus Vini 2015, followed by Fernão Pó Reserva Red (Merlot) and finished with ASF Red Doc Palmela (Castelão (80%), Cabernet Sauvignon, Tannat), a gold medalist at Mundus Vini 2015. Fernão Pó Winery takes very seriously the strong bond between wine and gastronomy, and at the tasting you'll receive sound advice on pairing their wines with specific foods. In general I'm partial for white wine and my favorite was the fresh ASF White DOC Palmela.

Apart from the visits and wine tasting at the cellar, Fernão Pó holds a regular calendar of wine tourism activities all year long. You can find all the activities and events, with prices, in a brochure available at the winery website (find link bellow). Next month (July 4th) will be held a lunch on the vineyards with a typical Portuguese Sardinhada (Grilled Sardines). The program includes a guided visit to the vineyards and to the cellars, lunch including typical products from the region and a wine tasting oriented by the estate winemaker. Looks like a great opportunity to to taste some nice Portuguese food and have a glass (or two) of wine.