Got this email from K&L Wines. No idea if this is a great price or not, but it's summer and time for some Portuguese whites
Here's another reason why Vinho Verde is the ultimate budget friendly summer drink - this wine is refreshingly crisp with citrus notes and great minerality. The incredible price and high marks from critics are the icing on the cake...
2008 Aveleda Alvarinho Vinho Verde ($9.99)
92 points Wines & Spirits "While the aroma is flinty and a little undeveloped, the flavors already show layers of fruit, from Mandarin orange and lime to white peach and an anise-like fennel note. The contrast between smoky richness and freshness makes this a luscious wine to enjoy in late summer with lobster and corn on the cob, both off the grill.
91 points Wine Enthusiast: "A full style of Vinho Verde, with fruit tannins giving a tight structure to the intense grapefruit juice. The wine is bone dry, achingly so to start, but then rounding sufficiently as the fine fruit flavors kick in." (12/15/2009)
Do not confuse this 100% Alvarinho (in Spain we know it as Albariño) with the lighter, fizzy vinho verde from this house that many of us have come to know and love. Rather, this wine comes from pure granitic soils in the Moncao sub-zone, where Avarinho reaches its ultimate expression. It is a bit more serious, with crisp appley flavors and a stern minerality that will make any other $10-12 Albariño you have had seem simple and boring by comparison.
I assume you mean Fonte, not Ponte. The Alvarinho is a single varietal wine and the Fonte is a blend. Here is some info from their website....
Aveleda Alvarinho is a wine produced exclusively with the Alvarinho variety, a grape variety that is becoming more and more a flagship of the white varieties produced in Portugal.
Being one of the major producers of Vinho Verde, Aveleda created this wine to express the most noble character and complexity of this unique grape. Proud of the result, it is named after our winery's name and our way of working with this fabulous grape.
Aveleda Fonte is a fresh, fruity light wine that offers freshness to the palate and romanticism to the spirit. Its simple label and the deep green bottle reveal what you are about to experience: a vivacious and smooth white Vinho Verde that can be the perfect match for light meals, seafood or served as an appetizer.
It is produced according to the most modern techniques and quality requisites that Aveleda imposes at every stage.
The Fonte is made with Trajadura, Loureiro, Arinto, and Azal grapes.
Andy Velebil wrote:I assume you mean Fonte, not Ponte. The Alvarinho is a single varietal wine and the Fonte is a blend. Here is some info from their website....
Ponte, Fonte... did not have a bottle around, lol. Been a popular VV for as long as I can remember. Even before I was 21, I remember my friends' parents drinking it.
The Fonte is more about the largely known vino verde with residual sugar and some fizzy. The Alvarinho is more a serious white wine from the vinho verde region. All their Follies range of product is made that way.
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