I was recently asked to judge a competition of wines from the Vinho Verde region in northern Portugual. I flew over earler this month, not exactly knowing what to expect, but came back pleasantly surprised. While I was familiar with the light, acidic and very fresh whites of the region, I had only tasted maybe a handful here in the States. From visiting nine wineries in three days I learned a lot about this gorgeous region and the growing wine industry.
Only recently, these wines been put on the international map, due to increased EU dollars pumped into the wine industry. Every winery we visited spoke of recent modifications to the vineyards and winery equipment that took their wines from local, cheap swill to international export worthy wines. The vineyards were modified to current, industry standard trellis systems and the vinification techniques now mirror those of fellow quality white wine producing regions. We even toured a Biodynamic winery and saw the difference they were making in the region.
Below are a list of some of my favorite wineries along with some photos of the trip. Stay tuned for a full report and outline of Vinho Verde when my notes are fully compiled.
Reguengo de Melgaço
These guys make some totally killer Alvarinho (the Portuguese version of Albariño) that are also imported into the United States. We tasted wines dating back to the winery’s first vintage in 2001. The 2005 had aged well and was the rockstar of the bunch, but the current releases, 2007 & 2008 were also great. Considering this stuff is less than $10 a bottle, I’m picking up a case!
Adega de Monção
This is a cooperative winery, which means over 1,600 farmers sell their grapes to the winery to make the wines. While the make a number of different wines, varying in price and quality, its remarkable that with so many different properties and quality levels of grapes this winery can make the totally kickass wine it does. Also – I was able to try a wine from 1988 and learned that Alvarinho ages like Riesling. The newer wines were tasty, but I really wish I could have bought a bottle of the ‘88.
Afros
We were lucky enough to dine with the owner and winemaker of Afros in his home on the vineyard property. Afros started farming using Biodynamics in the last few years and they produced some of the best wines I had on the entire trip. From the luscious whites to the very drinkable reds (that’s saying something in Vinho Verde – most reds in the region are unpalatable because of a high level of acidity) to the surprise bottle of bubbly that our chef for the evening, informed us “just turned up.” My only complaint is that Afros does not currently distribute their wines in the US.
Have you reviewed any of the Vinho Verde wines available in store locally ?