Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

brand of medium-sweet, lightly sparkling wine made by the firm of J. M. da fonseca at Azeitão, near setúbal in portugal. The brand was created in 1944, when Vintage Wines of New York saw that American veterans of the Second World War were returning home from Europe with a taste for wine. Lancers, initially sold in a stone crock, continues to be moderately successful in the United States, whereas mateus Rosé, created two years earlier, tends to be better known in Europe. A fully sparkling Lancers, made by the continuous method, was introduced in the late 1980s.