Quinta da Pedra Escrita 2018

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 My relation with white Douro wines is sort of recent as I have always somehow neglected them without any specific reason for it.  I confess I have been trying to find an explanation for it, but I just can't.

Still, as soon as I have started trying them, it did not took me long before I have fallen in love with some of its most representative grapes such as Viosinho, Rabigato or Verdelho due to the way they reflect a particularly special terroir which has already fascinated me with its reds.

 To the referred grapes, this Quinta da Pedra Escrita also has Alvarinho, which often appears as one of the star grapes of the Vinho Verde region and the "foreign" Viognier.

In short, this is an impressively complex wine which offers an incredible explosion of different tastes and dynamics when we are drinking it. 

On the one hand the sweet fruity tastes of wildflowers and grapefruit that Rabigato and Viognier give and on the other the fascinating minerality that both Verdelho and Alvarinho offer. And this with the influence of a granitic soil which potentiates its flavours.  

Texture wise it is incredibly rich and inviting for several different pairings. I have tried it on a virtual wine tasting where there were different nibbles around and to all of them has the wine reacted in an impressive way always gaining new dimensions.

Something that has also positively surprised me as well all the ones who have joined this tasting was how it has managed to impose its character after a particular strong Primitivo and a row of other Italian reds.

I would also like to underline the fact that it is an organic wine with a quite interesting vinification process as you may check in the technical file.

All in all the wine tasting has ended with the request from my colleagues to order a considerable amount of it which we are all looking forward to, expecting Spring to finally come to Hamburg.

 With it and in order to reinforce my wish of having Spring around, I recommend Walt Whitman´s When Lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd that you can read here

 

18/20
Country: Portugal
Region: Douro
Grapes: Alvarinho, Verdelho, Rabigato, Viognier
12,5%
Winemaker: Rui Roboredo Madeira

Website: https://ruimadeira.pt/project/branco_qpe/

Location: Hamburg, Germany

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