REGUENGO DE MELGAÇO | Alvarinho | Vinho Verde | 2016
albariño

WineStatistics will be evaluating wines in no particular order on no particular schedule. Just stay tuned and you will never miss one. If the wine is tasted more than once, the rating table will be updated so as to reflect all the new impressions and observations. The logic is simple – the more we taste, the more we learn.

Tonight we are going to review a royal wine – Alvarinho Vinho Verde 2016 from Reguengo de Melgaço, produced on the lands, that in the 16th century belonged to Queen Leonor of Portugal. Vinho Verde is quickly becoming the visit card of Portugal – that boozy-dry, citric limeade you’ve always wished for on a hot summer day. Not only is this stuff crazy refreshing and appealing, Vinho Verde wines also typically have low alcohol, making them an ideal quenching beverage. Vinho Verde is usually a blend of several white grapes, yet this one is a single varietal Albariño wine that was aged on the lees for 3 to 4 months. This aromatic variety has been well known domestically for centuries as Alvarinho, but it is only recently that it started to be also appreciated worldwide. But enough theory, let’s find out just how good this wine is. On to the tasting!
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Take a look at the tasting notes bellow and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Clear green color with topaz yellow hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with sweet fruits and citrus flavours: lime, green apple, ripe gooseberry, bergamot, green pear candy, green melon, overripe quince, lemon, mango, banana, fresh cut grass and some subtle hints of crème brûlée.

Gustatory
The wine is dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and green tannin. It tastes crisp, green and citrusy, a bit seedy yet quite candied and smooth at the same time. The wine has a nuanced herbal accent and it feels bitter, elegant and very refreshing due to it’s fair, yet complex, overall balance.

Aftertaste
It has a medium-plus finish and a balanced, bitter-crisp aftertaste.
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This is definitely a great Wine of Portugal and the overall rating says the same, with 90.6 points scored it is right there, among the best wines we’ve tasted so far. Please click on the chart icon on the left in order to get to the wine rating page, where you can find all the wines we’ve tasted to date.

Conclusion: this is definitely a wine in its prime form – ready to drink and not really worth for any more bottle ageing, as it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late, especially the highly aromatic wines like Vinho Verde. In order to amplify its aromatics, we would recommend to pair this wine with very light seafood dishes or sweet summer salads, like for example summer-citrus-avocado salad or citrusy seafood salad. By the way, the previous vintage of this same wine has been appreciated with 90 points by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate – this is no small feat, not at all. Enjoy!

WineStatistics tasting results:

REGUENGO DE MELGAÇO
Alvarinho | Vinho Verde | 2016

grape: | albariño

region: Portugal | Vinho Verde

overall rating: | 90.6 |

conclusion: great | a must try

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© The WineStatistics ratings are based solely on our own knowledge of the world of wine and on our personal wine tastes, which may, or may not, differ from yours – the reader. There are no absolutes of right and wrong in wine appreciation.