2016 Quinta do Ameal Loureiro 'Solo Unico’

Region: Lima Valley < Vinho Verde < Portugal

Grapes: Loureiro

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic farming; granite soils; no temperature control, ML is not blocked, all stainless steel; unfined/unfiltered; 10ppm SO2 added; 11% ABV; 166 cases

Winemaker: Pedro Araujo

Quinta do Ameal is technically in Vinho Verde, but Pedro isn’t making the typical spritzy ‘cheap and cheerful’ white wines of the region. These are classic wines, made entirely from Loureiro, great in their youth, but also with the legs to age.  This ‘Solo Único’ bottling gets special treatment – as in, really none at all – no oak, no temperature control and no blocking of malolactic fermentation (which always happens with Vinho Verde whites, to keep them spritzy and linear). The result is a game-changing wine – pure and crystalline, structured and tense, full of that classic salty, mineral quality, citrus and ripe pear and a long, penetrating finish.  Amazing with sushi.