Made by the lovely Lucia Ferrara, one of Portugal's most skilled winemakers, this offers up sturdy fruit, top-shelf structure and minerality, and lingering complexity.
Portugal continues to offer wine lovers some of the best values in the world, and this white is a prime example. Brought to us by importer Mary Taylor, who is making some serious waves in the wine world, she is helping to demystify European wines. To read more about Mary and her mission, click here to check out what Eric Asimov of the NY Times had to say.
Custom-made for this hot summer we're having, this is both "crushable" and contemplative. For me, that's the perfect mix of characteristics I look for in all of the wines I choose to write about.
2020 Mary Taylor Dao Branco
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Encruzado and Malvasia, two of Portugal's most prized native grapes, form the foundation of this aromatic and delightful white wine. A couple of other native grapes (Bical and Gouveio) round things out, and the fermentation and aging take place in stainless steel. As I type this up, I'm actually sipping on this wines, and I can say with full conviction that it is seriously delicious.
A prime example of why we keep buying and featuring Portuguese wines of all colors, this offers incredible quality-to-price ratio. The Dao region, in North-Central Portugal, is one of the country's oldest and most respected wine zones. The elevated, mountainous conditions here give us wines with a bit more restraint and elegance than those produced in Alentejo to the south and the Douro Valley to the north.
Showcasing a refined bouquet of white peach, ripe citrus, melon, white flowers, and beeswax, this is quite rich and amply textured, but it's also quite bright and crisp. What grabbed me the most was the finish, which is long, quite classy, and balanced. As John Gilman (View From the Cellar) said, "This is an excellent wine that still has years and years of life ahead of it. 2023-2040+."
I don't know that I'll be holding onto any for that long. Honestly, I don't think the bottles I reserved for myself will make it past Labor Day 2023 :) Get some folks, it's delicious, it's value-priced, and it's quite compelling.
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Josh Spurling
Owner, Operator, Wine Monger
Table Wine Asheville