It’s heating up 🌞 so get chilling (with a brilliant Vinho Verde Branco and a new red, perfect served cool).
Diogo and his wife Mafalda farm 40 hectares of vineyards in Celorico do Basto, a rugged mountainous region of southern Vinho Verde. The Quinta has been in Diogo’s family since 1791 and has been pushing the boundaries of what has come to be expected from the region, promoting single varietal wines from their estate’s tradition varieties such as Padeiro and Azal as well as embracing sustainability at their core and were the first estate in Vinho Verde to obtain the ‘Sustainable Winegrowing, Portugal’ certification.
Their Vinho Verde Branco is a blend of native grape varieties, Arinto, Azal and Trajadura, hand harvested, destemmed and pressed into stainless steel for fermentation. It’s light and fruity with fresh apples and citrus and a little of the classic vinho verde spritz. Perfect chilled on its own on a hot day.
The Raza Lagares is a nod to the ancestors of Raza. Whilst Diogo now has a shiny modern winery, this red is still foot trodden in granite lagares found at the back of the old yet grand house built by previous generations. The variety is an indigenous clone of Vinhão which was traditionally used to make filthy, cheap red for the masses but this a fun and approachable, yet serious wine. It’s a tintorera variety which means it has red flesh/juice as well as the skin which brings an intense colour to the wine, which from appearance is unassumingly light and would go down well slightly chilled. It’s packed with juicy wild berries and hedgerow fruit, as well as some floral notes, an earthy complexity and minimal tannins. A great BBQ wine!
