Lisbon

For things that don't fit into the other categories.

Moderators: Glenn E., Roy Hersh, Andy Velebil

Post Reply
Josh Large
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:55 pm
Location: Bellevue, Washington, United States of America - USA

Lisbon

Post by Josh Large »

Greetings from Porto! I've become intrigued of late by a now defunct wine called "lisbon" and wondered if anyone out there has by chance ever seen an old bottle of it at auction or otherwise encountered the stuff. Like port and madeira, lisbon was a popular fortified wine with the English during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but, like malaga (and, to a less than fatal extent, madeira) fell out of fashion when the "sherry craze" hit in the 1820s. In 1863, the sexagenarian wine merchant T.G. Shaw recalled that in his early days "constant orders used to be received for lisbon; while now [merchants] do not probably receive one in six months. It shows how fashions unaccountably change; for there is scarcely a better or more agreeable wine than real, old, rich, mellow, or dry lisbon; but its name is nearly forgotten, since nothing passes now that has not the name of sherry, however coarse much of this is, and not to be compared to good lisbon" (Wine, The Vine, and The Cellar, pp. 121-2). Today the Estremadura region around Lisbon still produces plenty of wine, but contemporary Bucellas bears little resemblance to its nineteenth-century forebear, being dry and unfortified. It is interesting though to note that Estremadura wines may now once again be called "Lisboa" in an effort (according to an article earlier posted on this site) "to gain greater international awareness and end confusion with Spanish region Extremadura."
Post Reply