Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Arinto dos Açores (not the same as all Arinto but a hybrid) is unoaked and comes in at 12.5% alcohol. The price of this library wine merely reflects current releases. This is a relatively new venture, so it is good to check in and see how the older releases are going. Owner-winemaker Antonio Maçanita keeps telling me it will basically "last forever," as that is how he sees most wines from the Azores. It's worth extending the drinking window a little, but it is certainly developing quickly. Still vibrant and youthful in terms of structure, this has a long and lively finish. It seems substantial for a fresh white, mouth coating and brilliantly structured. The three or four extra years in bottle since it was last seen have done it a lot of good, but it isn't as young in its flavor profile. It is better balanced, more complex, more expressive and very open.
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.