AVELEDA | Alvarinho | Colheita Selecionada | 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 quite unusual Vinho Verde wine – Alvarinho Colheita Selecionada 2016 from Aveleda, produced in the Sousa sub-region of Minho region, which shares the same land area as the Vinho Verde region. This wine was produced with the expertise of Professor Denis Dubourdieu of the University of Bordeaux, considered one of the best white wine authority in Bordeaux. Vinho Verde wines are usually a blend of several white grapes, yet this one is a single varietal Albariño wine, known domestically as Alvarinho, which is a thick skinned variety, that makes it ideal for coping with the damp maritime climate of Spain and Portugal. The skin helps protect the grape from sea winds and allows the sugars within to fully ripen. But enough theory, let’s move straight to the tasting and find out how good this wine really is.

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Take a look at the tasting notes bellow and our detailed assessment of the wine:

Visual
Brilliant-clear green color with topaz-yellow hues towards the rim of the glass.

Olfactory
The nose is strong, filled mostly with sweet fruits and floral flavours: elderflower, acacia flower, lime, gooseberry, bergamot, green pear, green apple, pear candy, green melon, lemon, pineapple, fresh cut grass and some subtle hints of wetstone.

Gustatory
The wine is medium-dry, with high alcohol level, high acidity and smooth tannin. It tastes crisp, fresh and citrusy, with a nuanced floral accent. The wine has a fair overall balance and it feels smooth, elegant and complex – a fine wine indeed.

Aftertaste
It has a medium 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 90.5 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 now and not worth ageing, as it is always better to drink a wine a year too soon than a day too late, especially the highly aromatic white wines like Vinho Verde. In order to amplify its aromatics and counter balance it’s flora accents, we would recommend to pair this wine with light and oily or crisp and savory seafood dishes, like for example warm asparagus salad with butter poached oysters or some avocado, cucumber and tuna salad. Last but not least, this wine has been awarded a gold medal by Mundus Vini wine tasting competition, which is no small feat, not at all. Cheers!

WineStatistics tasting results:

AVELEDA
Alvarinho | Colheita Selecionada | 2016

grape: | albariño |

region: Portugal | Vinho Verde

overall rating: | 90.5 |

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.