Quintas de Melgaco QM Alvarinho 2018
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Quintas de Melgaço QM Alvarino Vinho Verde is delicious and lasting on the palate. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers lime zest, apple, and chalky flavors. Pair it with citrus-accented salmon and avocado handrolls. (Tasted: June 11, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Clean, with a pure line of lemon acidity, this is a lightly spicy, immensely refreshing wine. Its ripe flavors are developing well, which introduce a smooth edge to the tangy, textured fruits. Drink from late 2019.
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Quintas de Melgaço is the second biggest producer of Alvarinho grape in the Vinho Verde Wine Region. Its winery is located in Ferreiros de Cima, Alvaredo, Melgaço; in the North of Portugal, under the Appelation DOC VINHO VERDE, "Melgaço Sub-Region", where the best regional varieties of grapes are planted, especially the "Alvarinho" lineage.
The company was started by Amadeu Abílio Lopes, who started this project to fulfil the interest of some hundreds of producers of Melgaço. There are 430 shareholders. After twelve years in business Quintas de Melgaço has achieved national and international recognition for the quality of its products, which range from the traditional red wine through to the Alvarinho and the Trajadura mix, until we reach the real star of this region – the famous Alvarinho with characteristics resulting from the climate, the soil and the knowledge that has been passed through from generation to generation.
Bright and aromatic with distinctive floral and fruity characteristics, Albariño has enjoyed a surge in popularity and an increase in plantings over the last couple of decades. Thick skins allow it to withstand the humid conditions of its homeland, Rías Baixas, Spain, free of malady, and produce a weighty but fresh white. Somm Secret—Albariño claims dual citizenship in Spain and Portugal. Under the name Alvarinho, it thrives in Portugal’s northwestern Vinho Verde region, which predictably, borders part of Spain’s Rías Baixas.
A cheerful, translucid, lemon-yellow and slightly pétillant white wine, Vinho Verde literally means ‘green wine’ and is named after the northwest Portugese region from which it originates. The ‘green’ in the name refers to the youthful state in which the wines are customarily released and consumed, not the color of the wine.
It is typically a blend of various percentages of Alvarinho, Loureiro, Trajadura, and Pedernã (Arinto). Following initial alcoholic fermentation, a natural, secondary malolactic conversion in cask produces carbon dioxide, giving Vinho Verde its charmingly light sparkle.