Azevedo, Vinho Verde, Loureiro Alvarinho

This is a brilliant, bright and refreshing wine that captures the spirit of a Portuguese trip in a bottle.

Almost bottled with a spritz, this vibrant and engaging wine is full of white peach, apricot and blossom flavours with notes of lemon, lime and orange.

Grown in vineyards in the northern region of Vinho Verde at the border of Portugal and Spain, this is reminiscent of Albariños from just over the way into Galicia, but with the addition of the indigenous Portuguese variety, Loureiro. This adds a crisp and lively acidity to the wine and really plants it in th eVinho Verde style in terms of its flavours. This is then enhanced by the vinification - made in stainless steel vats, the wine is kept a low temperatures to retain aromatic flavours and is then bottled immediately after the fermentation has finished so that the carbon dioxide produced by the ferment can be captured in the wine, where it dissolves until the wine is opened. Magic!

This is an ideal wine for the spring an summer months - excellent as aperitif and delicious with salads, barbecues and seafood. Slightly less intense of an acid experience than, say, Txacoli, yet similarly engaging and exciting...