Note: This tip originally appeared in the Aug, 31, 2018, issue of Wine Spectator, "Where to Drink Well."
When it comes to high-quality winemaking that delivers both diversity and value, Portugal is a triple threat.
Port, the full-bodied fortified wine, placed Portugal on the wine map centuries ago. Red table wines, particularly from the Douro Valley, are gaining in reputation each year. And now winemakers throughout the country are producing exceptional white (branco) wines, drawing on Portugal's wealth of indigenous grape varieties, including Rabigato, Arinto, Alvarinho and Encruzado. Priced competitively, these refreshing wines add variety to the traditional warm-weather lineup.
Over the past year I've reviewed more than 160 white wines from Portugal, 33 of which scored 90 points or higher on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale. (A chart of recommended wines and a free alphabetical list of scores and prices for all wines tasted is available.)
Wines from the Douro Valley, located in the northern half of Portugal, earned over half of the outstanding scores, with wines from celebrated producers such as Quinta das Carvalhas, Ramos-Pinto, Wine & Soul, Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo and Casa Ferreirinha.
Casa Ferreirinha, founded in 1751, produces four white wines from the Douro Valley, accounting for about 25 percent of its production. "The Douro is a hot region," explains Luís Sottomayor, winemaking director for Sogrape Vinhos, parent company of Casa Ferreirinha. "The white varieties must be planted in higher altitudes in order to keep good acidity." For his white wines, Sottomayor sources grapes from vineyards located between 1,300 and 2,100 feet in altitude, which experience less extreme heat.
Its Antonia Adelaide Ferreira 2014 is a limited release, with only 300 cases made. "We started making Antonia Adelaide Ferreira because we believe the Douro can also make top-quality whites if you have the conditions," Sottomayor says. A powerful wine packed with tropical fruit, spice and beeswax flavors, the Antonia Adelaide Ferreira is a blend of Viosinho and Arinto grapes aged for over 12 months in barrel with bâtonnage treatment for texture and complexity.
For white wines from Casa Ferreirinha that are easier to find and kinder on the wallet, seek out the aromatic and spicy Douro Papa Figos 2016, a blend of Rabigato, Viosinho, Arinto Codega and Moscatel, or the citrus-flavored and mineral-driven Douro Planalto Reserva 2016, which is a blend of seven varieties, including Viosinho, Malvasia Fina, Gouveio and Arinto.
In the northwest corner of Portugal lies one of the country's most famous appellations, Vinho Verde, known for light-bodied and easy-sipping whites. Most of the area's approximately 20,000 small growers sell their grapes to cooperatives, but with the category enjoying recent global success, things in Vinho Verde are starting to change.
"The shift of the quality perception is being led by a handful of producers," says André Estácio Pinto, managing director of Calçada Estates, one of the few estate producers in Vinho Verde. Founded in 1917 in the city of Amarante, Calçada Estates consists of 123 acres of vines, including some of the oldest producing vineyards in the region. In 2000 the winery built a hotel, which is now part of the Relais & Châteaux collection and home to a one-Michelin-star restaurant, Largo do Paço.
"There are between 10 to 20 other producers in the region following our strategy in terms of controlling 100 percent of the process. The past five years have been impressive in terms of shifting the strategy to quality and control," says Pinto. The winery's Vinho Verde Portal da Calçada Reserva 2017 is a blend of Loureiro, Alvarinho, Arinto and Trajadura, offering a refreshing wet stone minerality along with crisp apple and peach flavors.
"Since our inception, we've looked essentially to France to form our best viticultural practices," says Pinto. "We're one of the few wineries doing high-density planting, which allows acceptable yields by acre but very low yields by plant, allowing more concentration in the fruit."
If you enjoy the thrill of the hunt when it comes to finding wines that are unique and rare, search for the wines of Colares, an appellation located within 2 miles of the Atlantic Ocean, just west of Lisbon. Colares is made up of just 40 acres of vines (a fraction of what it used to be in the early 1900s) planted next to ocean cliffs on sandy soils. The main grape varieties are Ramisco for reds wines and Malvasia de Colares for whites.
Only 166 cases of the Casal Sta. Maria Malvasia Colares 2014 were produced. It's a concentrated wine, with pear and mango flavors that are lightly honeyed and matched with a salty minerality. Chief winemaker Jorge Rosa Santos uses handpicked grapes that are fermented and aged in 225-liter French oak barrels for one year.
Other regions in Portugal producing noteworthy white wines include Dão and Lisboa. In the Dão, a region located just south of the Douro, look for wines made from the tropical-flavored Encruzado grape, such as Seacampo's Encruzado Dão Casa Américo Reserva 2016. In the Atlantic-influenced Lisboa region, the crisp and lively Arinto grape shines; the Quinta de Chocapalha Arinto Lisboa 2016 is a perfect example.
