This delightful dry rose comes from the Adega Ponte Barca winery (est. 1963) in northwestern Portugal. Specifically, this is the Vinho Verde wine appellation we're talking about, home to the lightest white wines you will find anywhere. While that is the pride of the region, the roses shouldn't be overlooked. The Lilas is a lightly effervescent, fresh, floral and crisp quaff with cherry fruit notes. Food affinities would be seafood and salads.
The hand harvested Las Lilas fruit comes from twenty year old mountainous estate vines lying between the Lima and Vez rivers and since we're talking about Vinho Verde here, the Atlantic Ocean maritime influence is real.
Adega Ponte Barca is a modern winemaking facility that does everything in stainless steel. After an extended maceration with little fining or filtering the wine is left on the lees for two months, accounting for much of its character.
The Las Lilas Rose consists of 40% Vinhao grapes, 30% Borracal and 30% Espadeiro. What does that actually mean for us, considering these types are not exactly household names? If you go to the Wikipedia page called List of Portuguese Wine Grape Varieties you run smack dab into the miasma that is really old Old World winemaking. Vinhao turns out to be two varieties that are currently being hashed out as to which may be the variety in this wine. Espadeiro is a family of five grapes types that we couldn't differentiate. Borracal goes by eighteen different names. All we were able to glean from this mess is that in all likelihood Vinhao imparts color and rustic raisiny character while Borracal gives the wine a perfumy nose and tart acidity. Espadeiro? Heck if we know.
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