I love going through each year's additions to Eyal Mermlestein's Portuguese portfolio. This year's arrivals are very interesting: one of the more interesting of Niepoort's Duoro reds, a few petnats from Luis Pato - and a few labels from one of Portugal's bright new stars, Wine and Soul.
Wine and Soul was founded by Sandra Tavares da Silva and Jorge Serôdio Borges 2001. The first was wine was Pintas, a single vineyard red with very old vines. It was followed by a few other wines from surrounding vineyards, also old vines; and Manoella, a separate label for Port and lower end tables wines. The Tavares da Silva's family also owns Quinta de Chocopalha in the Lisbon area, where Sandra is the chief winemaker - Eyal has brought in a white made of the local Arinto grape.
Manoella, 10 Years Old Extra Dry White Port
First of all, wonders of wonders - no one has entered this wine into Cellar Tracker! This has the warm, salt and caramel, "come sit by the fireplace" vibe of a Tawny, even if the grape are, indeed, purely white (Viosinho, Rabigato, Códega do Larinho and Gouveio). I guess ten years in barrels will do that to a white grape. I love this - when I mentally review all the new wines Eyal has brought in, this is the first one I want to revisit.
Maneolla, Duoro Branco, 2021
A field blend from volcanic soil. Not a huge presence, melons, white pepper, ashy minerals.
Manoella, Duoro, 2019
And this is the red. It has a lithe body with excellent acidity. The nose shows red fruit with dusty notes. Like a low key Beaujolais.
Maneolla, Duoro Branco Rose, 2021
My favorite of the three. Cellar Tracker says it's made of Touriga Nacional. It's very pale, the fruit quite mellow - it's really all about minerals and pink grapefruit acidity.
Whatever other benefits they may offer, drinking Portuguese wines has certainly exposed me to a lot of new grape varieties. Here is yet another one, Arinto. It's not a noble grape. This is a quaffer, albeit a good one.
Wine And Soul, Douro, Pintas Character, 2019
This is the first table wine from the da Silva and Borges that really gets my attention. It's a field blend (over 30 grapes, but the majority are Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Nacional) from those old vines surrounding the Pintas vineyard I mentioned earlier. It's very young, dominated at first by a green streak I sometimes find in high end Loire reds. A couple of hours later, the mineral rich character typical of the Duoro takes over. I'll speak of the palate first, because that's where the sure hand of the winemakers is so obvious. It's rich, but not overripe, the acidity is excellent and the tannins are deftly integrated - I'd say the same for the oak, if I could sense it at all. The nose is spicy with a mineral tinge, and not especially complex, but that's the deal with Duoro reds - aromatics are not their forte. I'm tempted to buy more for the fridge and see how the aromatics develop with age.
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