Quinta de Chocapalha Arinto 2016
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Parker
Robert
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Winemaker Notes
Pairs well with fresh salads, grilled white fish, and roasted chicken.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Arinto, sourced from 30-year-old vines, is the latest in a brand that is one of my favorite overachievers from Chocapalha. It comes in at 12.5% alcohol. This is another fine one. It has excellent acidity but a bit more depth than the 2015, if not quite its laser burst of acidity. All unoaked, it is pure and fresh, with the ability to age. (Tasting the 2008 next to it proved that, by the way.) The acidity of this grape is always a preservative and it ages well in many regions. If you like them lighter in style and crispy, this is a great warm-weather choice at a bargain price.
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A white Portugese variety documented mainly along coastal vineyards surrounding Bucelas and Lisbon, Arinto shows marked citrus qualities with more stone fruit as it ages. Somm Secret—When a blending ingredient in Vinho Verde, it is called Pedernã.
Best known for intense, impressive and age-worthy fortified wines, Portugal relies almost exclusively on its many indigenous grape varieties. Bordering Spain to its north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean on its west and south coasts, this is a land where tradition reigns supreme, due to its relative geographical and, for much of the 20th century, political isolation. A long and narrow but small country, Portugal claims considerable diversity in climate and wine styles, with milder weather in the north and significantly more rainfall near the coast.
While Port (named after its city of Oporto on the Atlantic Coast at the end of the Douro Valley), made Portugal famous, Portugal is also an excellent source of dry red and white Portuguese wines of various styles.
The Douro Valley produces full-bodied and concentrated dry red Portuguese wines made from the same set of grape varieties used for Port, which include Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz (Spain’s Tempranillo), Touriga Franca, Tinta Barroca and Tinto Cão, among a long list of others in minor proportions.
Other dry Portuguese wines include the tart, slightly effervescent Vinho Verde white wine, made in the north, and the bright, elegant reds and whites of the Dão as well as the bold, and fruit-driven reds and whites of the southern, Alentejo.
The nation’s other important fortified wine, Madeira, is produced on the eponymous island off the North African coast.