Score: 87/100
This wine is produced on Casa do Capitão-Mor estate (at Quinta da Boavista) in Mazedo, Monção, Portugal.
The soil here is granitic calcareous with a porfhyric texture, covered by a land terrace of rolled pebbles. It is about 900m from the river Minho, and his average altitude is about 60 meters above sea level on flat land.
The winemaking was overseen by Rui Walter Cunha. Grapes were hand-harvested and picked in small boxes, brought to the wine cellar to be destemmed. Half of them were submitted to skin-contact maceration for five hours, with temperature control while the other half was directly pressed. After clarification, fermentation was ran, before the wine was refined on its fine lees with regular “bâtonnage” until bottling.
Tasting Notes
This Albarinho white from the Vinho Verde region of Portugal comes in lemon-yellow color of medium intensity, but made somewhat looking deep thanks to gold hues.
The nose is fresh and mineral, with vibrant lime notes and subtle floral characters together with an enjoyable smell of sea breeze. There too is some discrete depth provided by delicate notes of hazelnut and touches of white pepper.
It’s elegant and intriguing to smell, but gives the impression something is in there and that something is going to happen in the mouth. Does it?
Yes, your palate is immediately filled with a crisp and vibrant acidity well supported by citrus lemon and lime flavors. A good oily, almost creamy texture also coats your taste buds and contain the acidity well still letting shine and drive a fresh sensation all along.
Quite a lot going on flavor-wise with the citrus we’ve talked about, but also stonefruit (white peach) and some tropical (pineapple) to the finish.
With the heat of the palate, the spices burst into flavors even more and provide a complex layered experience up to a rather long finish for a crisp white.
Overall
A very well-balanced, crisp, and vibrant white wine, driven by the freshness of its mineral, saline acidity and lime flavors, but augmented by many layers of depth and elegant flavors you can taste for a long time after tasting.
Concentrated and very well executed, a great example of how solid Albarinho can be beyond the acidic and refreshing style.
Enjoy 🙂
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