2023 Quinto da Lixa 'Escolha' Vinho Verde

An unspecified blend of Loureiro, Trajadura and Alvarinho, the classic grapes of the region. Fermented and aged simply in stainless steel. 12.5% alcohol. Bone dry at 3.5g/L residual sugar and 6.5g/L total acidity. Escolha is a term used for wines that have a higher pedigree, they have been “schooled."

Drier, with a touch more body and intensity than many Vinho Verdes. It is still light, and effortless, with lots of mixed citrus tones (fruit, oil and flowers), and delicate herbal, floral tones that make the wines from the region so charming.

Owned and operated by the Meireles family from the town of Vila da Lixa since the mid-1980s, Quinta da Lixa began its life as a cellar-door vendor of what the locals lovingly called o tal vinho da Lixa – ‘that Lixa wine’. The family had great foresight in acquiring estate vineyard land early on and over the ensuing decades, ensuring an increasingly consistent source of high-quality and relatively low-cost estate-grown grapes. The 1990s saw the construction of a new winery devoted to transitioning the family business from bulk local-market sales to estate bottling. Another piece of the puzzle was completed in the early 2000s with the hiring of Carlos Teixeira, a local who had left town to make his name as one of Portugal’s most respected oenologists. He’s still at the helm of this beloved winery today, producing textbook Vinhos Verdes at an unimpeachable level of quality for the very modest pricepoint.