A wine house that takes weddings
José Maria da Fonseca Casa-Museum is the nineteenth-century house of the José Maria da Fonseca wine company, in Vila Nogueira de Azeitão on the Setúbal Peninsula, south of Lisbon and inside the Serra da Arrábida Natural Park. Weddings use its gardens, two historic cellars and a permanent marquee, which is the largest of its spaces.
The company was founded in 1834 and is the oldest table-wine producer in Portugal. It is still family-owned, now managed by the seventh generation, and it makes Periquita and Moscatel de Setúbal. Its other well-known wines include Lancers, launched as a rosé in 1944, and BSE, a white created in 1945. A wedding here is held on a working wine estate, and the wines served on the day are the house’s own.
The house and the family
The house was built in the nineteenth century and restored in 1923 by the Swiss architect Ernesto Korrodi. The Soares Franco family lived in it until the 1970s, and its tiled facade and gardens have long stood for the company.
The founder, José Maria da Fonseca, was born in Vilar Seco, near Nelas, in 1804 and began the business in 1834. The Periquita brand dates from 1850, and the 1885 vintage won gold medals at exhibitions in Berlin and Barcelona. In 1857 King Pedro V conferred the Order of the Tower and Sword on the company’s wine premises. The company now farms about 650 hectares of vineyard across five regions.
The house is open to visitors every day. The tour starts in the Museum Room, crosses the garden and goes through the Adega da Mata, the Adega dos Teares Novos and the Adega dos Teares Velhos, where the oldest Moscatéis are kept, some of them more than a hundred years old. Guided tours are given in Portuguese and English, and in Spanish by arrangement. It ends with a tasting, and a wine shop sits inside the house. Wedding menus include a private tour of the house. About 42,000 visitors from 70 countries came in 2023.
Azeitão and the Arrábida
Azeitão is a group of villages inside the Arrábida Natural Park, among them Vila Fresca and Vila Nogueira, which took the names of the estates around them. Noble families built summer houses and estates here over the centuries. Local products include Azeitão cheese, the pastries called tortas and the wines.
For a free day there are the Bacalhôa palace and its Renaissance gardens at Vila Fresca de Azeitão, the sixteenth-century Convento da Arrábida, the bay at Portinho da Arrábida, Palmela Castle and Sesimbra Castle. The house sits in the Lisbon area of Portugal.
Spaces for the ceremony and the reception
The house has four spaces for weddings, of different sizes. Ceremonies, photographs and drinks receptions suit the gardens, dinner can move into a cellar or the marquee, and the spaces can be used for different moments of one day.
The Mata Garden
The Mata Garden has a fountain as its backdrop. It seats 130 at a single table or 150 at round tables, and takes 350 standing for cocktails. It is used for lunch events in spring and summer and depends on the weather. The formal parterre gardens in front of the house are the setting for photographs and drinks.
The Teares Novos cellar
The Teares Novos cellar dates from the eighteenth century and holds mahogany barrels with about 400,000 litres of wine. It takes up to 200 guests, at a single table of up to 120 or at round tables for 60 to 200. Because it is climate controlled, it is available only from April to October. Every two years the cellar hosts the Confraria do Periquita, and one chapter brought more than 100 people to the house and welcomed 19 new members of several nationalities.
The marquee in the Castelinho Garden
New for 2026, the marquee is a permanent structure of 500 square metres built by the company in partnership. It has transparent sides, an adjoining deck of 131 square metres and a covered veranda 25 metres long.
The Bassaqueira cellar
The Bassaqueira cellar is about a kilometre from the house, on the company’s estate. It was built in the 1970s and holds about a million bottles in ageing, with barrels of the house’s Moscatéis, including rare Torna Viagem wines. It takes up to 120 guests, at a single table of up to 30 or at round tables for 30 to 120.
Food and wine
Catering comes in three formats: a plated lunch or dinner, a buffet and a cocktail dinatoire. The buffet offers two salads, two hot dishes, such as arroz de patos or sea bass with vegetables, and three side dishes, all chosen by the couple. Each format starts with a welcome cocktail of two wines and six appetisers, chosen from a list that includes tartlets with Azeitão cheese, pumpkin jam and walnuts, and cones of lobster and crab with salmon roe.
The plated menu has two versions. Option 1 is a starter, then either a fish course or a meat course, then dessert. Option 2 has both the fish and the meat course. Mains include veal loin with a Periquita demi-glace and cod with a cornbread crust, and dessert can be a torta de Azeitão with sliced fruit. Vegetarian and vegan dishes include a mushroom risotto and a vegetarian lasagne. The menu is the same for the whole group, apart from dietary restrictions.
Wine is part of the price. Premium wines for the meal, white, red and Moscatel, come to about half a bottle per guest, and Super Premium wines are available for a supplement. Service runs for four hours from the start of the cocktail. The house décor is tables with white cloths, table lighting, dark wooden chairs with beige cushions and dried flowers. Other décor needs the management’s approval at least eight days ahead, and external caterers, florists and event designers are welcome.
What it costs
These are 2026 prices, valid until 31 December 2026, and VAT at 23 per cent is added. The plated menu costs EUR 84 per guest for Option 1 and EUR 95 for Option 2, the buffet EUR 95 and the cocktail dinatoire EUR 69. Each includes the welcome cocktail, the wines, coffee or tea and the private tour of the house. Prices for 2027 are to be requested from the venue.
Hire of the Teares Novos cellar or the Mata Garden is EUR 1,375 for four hours. For a lunch or dinner for 30 guests or more, hire is included, and the menus run from a minimum of 30 to a maximum of 200 guests. Super Premium wines add EUR 12 per guest. Extra hours cost EUR 200 an hour, and if wine continues to be served the supplement is EUR 7 per guest.
How a wedding is booked and run
A date is held provisionally for two weeks on written request and confirmed by a payment of 30 per cent of the event total. The remaining 70 per cent is due up to eight days before the date, final numbers are confirmed in writing eight days before, and increases of up to 10 per cent are accepted. Extras are invoiced within five days of the event.
Music is permitted until 2 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and the eve of holidays, and until midnight on other days, under the noise licence granted by the Setúbal municipality. Set-up is by prior agreement on the day, and dismantling takes place within an hour of the end of the event. The events team also arranges catering, décor, entertainment, furniture and audiovisual hire, and hostesses. A dedicated preparation area is set aside for external caterers, and the facilities are accessible.
Where guests stay and eat
Nearby places to stay include the Hotel Rural Clube de Azeitão at Vila Fresca, Quinta de Catralvos in Azeitão, the five-star Hotel Casa Palmela near Setúbal, the Pousada de Palmela in Palmela Castle, the Pousada de São Filipe in Setúbal and Sesimbra Hotel & Spa. The company’s own restaurant, Wine Corner, is on the same street as the house, and the Casa das Tortas 1910 restaurant stands on the Praça da República in Vila Nogueira.
Getting there
From Lisbon, a bus from Praça de Espanha towards Setúbal stops at Vila Nogueira de Azeitão, 50 metres from the house. By train, the Fertagus line runs from Roma-Areeiro, Entrecampos, Sete Rios and Campolide to Coina station, about 8 kilometres away, where a bus continues to Vila Nogueira de Azeitão. Visits run daily, from 10:00 to 17:30 between April and October and from 10:00 to 16:30 between November and March.
Our view
The house suits couples who want a wedding on a working wine estate. The private tour of the house, the house wines and the cellars come with the menu price, and the spaces run from a table of 30 in the Bassaqueira cellar to the marquee for the largest weddings.
Four terms shape a booking. The Teares Novos cellar is open only from April to October. The Mata Garden depends on the weather and is used for lunch events in spring and summer. The menus run from 30 to 200 guests. And the prices published are for 2026 and expire on 31 December 2026.
Four points are worth settling with the events team before a date is held: the 2027 prices, the capacity of the marquee, how a ceremony is arranged and where the guests will stay. The listing and the magazine issue carry the rest of the details.
