2023 Anselmo Mendes Muros Antigos Alvarinho [WE92]

Producer: Anselmo Mendes  
Region: Vinho Verde, Portugal  
Varietal: Albariño  
Year: 2023 

Wine Enthusiast, 92 Points 

"A dense wine from the Minho Valley, this delivers swathes of white-fruit flavors. The wine has great acidity, bright fruitiness and potential richness as it matures. Drink from 2023." 

About the Producer: 

"Anselmo Mendes is, simply put, one of Portugal’s most revered winemakers. A native son of Monção (which, along with neighboring Melgaço, where his cellar is located, is one of the top Alvarinho crus in the country), he hails from an agricultural family that, like most in the area, dabbled in wine for household production. It wasn’t until after university studies in agronomy that he began to specialize in wine, studying in both Portugal and France and enjoying a rapidly rising star as one of the most sought-after consulting winemakers in Portugal.

The Muros Antigos wines are all unoaked and see long, slow fermentations at low temperature with indigenous yeasts. The lees contact is relatively short– around four months– making for crisp, lively wines that, while demonstrating some of the best quality/price rapport in the region, nonetheless bring a serious amount of concentration and varietal character to the the table, all in the fizz-free, bone-dry idiom Anselmo helped pioneer. (And the Alvarinho in particular will age, too– a recently-tasted 2012 was showing beautifully complex– Chablisian, even– evolution while staying fresh as a daisy.)" 

Alcohol: 12.5% 

*Price and availability in store may vary. Vintage date may differ from pictured.