Maçanita, Irmãos e Enólogos, Douro Reserva Branco

This is a brilliant and serious, seriously enjoyable Reserva from the Douro valley. It is pitch-perfect in balance of complexity, freshness and weight - a stunning wine that shows vineyard characteristics, careful handling of fruit and excellent use of barrels. A wine for anyone interested in white Burgundy, or serious any quality white wine!

Flavours of fresh fruit, pear, apricot and green apple are balanced by subtle cashew nut and spice notes. It's a really excellent wine that is at its best with really good food.

Made from 65% Arinto and a blend of loads of other indigenous Portuguese varieties, the vineyards for this wine are all in the upper reaches of the Douro valley, increasing acidity in the grtapes while exposing them to the best sunshine available. The wine is made using a combination of 60% oak vats and 40% stainless steel, before 12 months of aging in neutral oak barrels.

António Maçanita is a very widely travelled and well worked winemaker and consultant with projects all over Portugal. This is a lovely story that came to being because he wanted to get to know the great Douro region, but didn't know where or how to begin. He contacted his sister, who is also a winemaker, and she said the same thing! Together they have found parcels of vines and old vineyards that they believe show their own version of the region in the bottles that they produce.

These are excellent wines and are focused on the purity of the fruit that the Douro soils are able to yield as well as the charm from the Portuguese climate.

Working in the Cima Corgo and Baixa Corgo subzones of the Douro, this is a project that clearly seeks high quality. These old vineyard plantings are high in altitude and produce fruit of serious quality, not destined for bulk wine production, but for the wineries that have built the reputation that the region enjoys. This is the right ethos for anyone anywhere in the world, but is certainly the only one for a region such as this: there are no weedy, flabby or also-ran wines in the Douro, not really. It's one of the oldest quality wine regions in the world and this project is a very fine addition to its story, as much as the Douro is part of the story of the Maçanitas!

Limited to 6,000 bottles, this is a wine that we reckon will either be in really high demand, or will just sit on the tables of people "who know"...