Vinho Verde

(Not a new subject here at the ol' blogspot, but still worth a look-see considering its popularity.)  

Vinho Verde used to be a niche item reserved for a cult following; that is, until more recent times when our vacationers to Portugal came home with a taste for the stuff.  Even some of our most inveterate Napa Cab lovers now seem to have taken to Vinho Verde, especially now that it's toasty outside.  

If anything Vinho Verde is the anti-cab white wine of the world with mouth-zappingly fresh fruit flavors of lemon, lime, melon, gooseberry and grapefruit.  This straw-yellow tonic is subtly carbonated, low in alcohol and marries well with seafood, sushi, salads and picnics.  It is the quintessential white wine of summer.  

Vinho Verde comes from the Minho Province in the northwestern corner of Portugal right on the Atlantic coast.  It's a huge chunk of property with 21,000 hectares in vines; that's 9% of Portugal's total vineyards with 86% of those being planted in white grapes.  

There are six indigenous white varieties earmarked for Vinho Verde production with another twelve obscure varieties legally allowed in the blend.  The red varieties are similarly obscured by their nativity but that shouldn't concern us since the red wines generally don't leave the country.  Roses, though, are imported here and they are quite good.

Winemaking in this region goes back to the time of Christ but wine regulations and laws are a twentieth century creation.  First demarcated in 1908, then legislated in 1926, Vinho Verde received its DOC in 1984.

Minho Province has nine subregions and the best of these for wine production is Moncao in the northeastern corner facing Spain where the granite soils and cool (continental climate) weather produce a fresher and somewhat richer wine.  At the opposite (southern) extreme lies the Douro River and Port country and if that doesn't constitute an extremity in wine styles I don't know what does.