Exquisitely fresh, yet full in the mouth. Clean, malic-citrus with lively, complexing, green aromas. Sourced from relatively old vineyards, this distinctive white is uncharacteristically concentrated yet elegant with vibrant ripe fruit and delicately crisp on the palate.
Viticulture
Responsible husbandry and care in the vineyard is critical to harvesting the best Mouchao fruit and sustaining their healthy bee population. Vineyard plots and varieties are harvested separately. Arinto and Antao Vaz ripen at roughly the same time a week to ten days after Fernao Pires. Well drained alluvial loam (Zé Rovisco vineyard - 12 years old) or skeletal flintstone clay loam (Barragem vineyard - 23 years old). The larger Barragem vineyard lies on the shallow banks of the Mouchao reservoir, providing a freshness, complexity and concentration common to few whites in the region.
Vinification
Hand picked and cold-fermented in stainless steel vats at around 15ºC for 2-4 weeks. After its first racking, the new wine is left on its fine lees for 5-6 months before bottling, providing the wine with some generous mouth-fill. The cold fermentation temperatures are largely responsible for the fresh tropical fruit "secondary" aromas whilst still young. Arinto provides the citric freshness, whilst the Antao Vaz is known for its volume, fruit and character. Fernao Pires needs to be harvested before phenological ripeness to avoid overly rich characters. The result is firm, delicate and lightly fragrant. Lightly filtered prior to bottling
Recommendation
Serve lightly chilled on its own or accompanied by Portugal's world famous seafood or petiscos (such as olives, cheese, smoked or paprika chourico and other charcuterie).