Vinho Verde “Tez”, Bojo do Luar 2019 (Portugal)

This isn’t the fizzy stuff we have all come to associate Vinho Verde with. This is a fresh, mineral driven skin contact white made from a blend of 50% Avesso and 50% Arinto that spends three months on skins and is fermented in stainless steel and aged in concrete, then bottled unfiltered. The wine is fermented with chestnut flowers (1lb per 500L) and only gets 10mg/L of SO2 at bottling (which is almost nothing). While this is an orange wine, it’s really fresh and light on it’s feet with bright minerality and citrus balanced by aromatic orchard fruit and nice texture from the skin contact, but not overly grippy or intense. Total crowd pleaser.