Winemaker Notes
The grapes come from Estate vineyards. After handpicking, destemming and a very soft pressing, fermentation takes place for nearly one month at temperatures varying between 14 and 16 Celsius. Ninety percent of the wine was aged in stainless steel tanks for five months before final blending and bottling, with the raining 10% is aged in new French Oak 225 litre barriques for the same period.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 BRANCO is a blend of Rabigato (40%), Arinto (27%), Viosinho (18%), Gouveio (12%) and Codega (3%), 90% aged in stainless steel. This is a lovely Branco, steely, stonewashed, clean and pure, with lemon-lime notes on the finish. It wakes up the palate and grips it. It provides some value for the dollar. This is the type of wine that will be most exhilarating young. It may hold. It may show ok with a few years on it. But it will only be at its best in its youngest incarnations—like now. So, pop those corks. There were 10,000 cases produced. Drink now-2011.
With hundreds of white grape varieties to choose from, winemakers have the freedom to create a virtually endless assortment of blended white wines. In many European regions, strict laws are in place determining the set of varieties that may be used in white wine blends, but in the New World, experimentation is permitted and encouraged. Blending can be utilized to enhance balance or create complexity, lending different layers of flavors and aromas. For example, a variety that creates a soft and full-bodied white wine blend, like Chardonnay, would do well combined with one that is more fragrant and naturally high in acidity. Sometimes small amounts of a particular variety are added to boost color or aromatics. Blending can take place before or after fermentation, with the latter, more popular option giving more control to the winemaker over the final qualities of the wine.
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.