Antão Vaz?

[Christian Miller (CMM)]

I was quite taken with this wine, also exceptional value at $11: Alentejano Vinho Branco "Monte Velho" 2019, Esporão - TN below for those with nothing better to do. It's 40% Antão Vaz which is described by Wiki as "vigorous and productive, and requires a hot climate. The thick skins on these large loosely packed grapes enable them to withstand high heat and dehydration." Jancis concurs and adds it "ripens evenly, has good general disease resistance."

Sounds like a grape for our times, and a good match for much of California. Anyone heard of any plantings outside Portugal?

TN: Brassy/green tinged pale gold; nice aroma with some complexity - meyers lemon, apricot, linden, lovage-sage herbal note; med body with some tactile weight (skin contact? website doesn't mention it, but Antão supposedly has thick skin); lowish acid, soft and round with plump fruit, but offset by a light bitter-fennel note; pretty good length. A bit soft but very intriguing. 40% Antao Vaz, 40% Roupeiro, 20% Perrum.

 

[Oswaldo Costa]

I can't speak for the grape, but Esporão is an Alentejo industrial-scale winery that practices every intervention made to man.

 

[mark e]

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
I can't speak for the grape, but Esporão is an Alentejo industrial-scale winery that practices every intervention made to man.

Oswaldo can tell you more about the region, but it probably is too hot for quality table wines - so low acid and high alcohol are pretty common as is routine acidification.

 

[Christian Miller (CMM)]

originally posted by mark e:

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
I can't speak for the grape, but Esporão is an Alentejo industrial-scale winery that practices every intervention made to man.

Oswaldo can tell you more about the region, but it probably is too hot for quality table wines - so low acid and high alcohol are pretty common as is routine acidification.

That's what makes Antão Vaz intriguing to me. The wine was quite nice. A bit flabby, but no real heat or alcoholic bite. ABV was stated as 14%, for what it's worth (what's the wiggle room in the EU?) No mention of de-alc in the tech sheet, which reads like more or less standard modern industrial tank white winemaking. In any case, I'm more interested in the grape than the winemaking in this case.

 

[mark e]

originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):

originally posted by mark e:

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
I can't speak for the grape, but Esporão is an Alentejo industrial-scale winery that practices every intervention made to man.

Oswaldo can tell you more about the region, but it probably is too hot for quality table wines - so low acid and high alcohol are pretty common as is routine acidification.

That's what makes Antão Vaz intriguing to me. The wine was quite nice. A bit flabby, but no real heat or alcoholic bite. ABV was stated as 14%, for what it's worth (what's the wiggle room in the EU?) No mention of de-alc in the tech sheet, which reads like more or less standard modern industrial tank white winemaking. In any case, I'm more interested in the grape than the winemaking in this case.

The EU rule states "Actual alcoholic strength." Therefore, you sometimes see 14,7, but it usually is in 0.5 increments. Generally, Portuguese wineries are not using a lot of very high-tech equipment such as spinning cone.