Vin Vinho Verde

Vinho Verde

Vinho Verde is a well-known DOC in the Minho region of north-western Portugal. Each year it is responsible for vast quantities of straw-yellow, light-bodied, tangily tart wines produced from many thousands of small farms throughout the region. And amid the wash of white wine is the faint glimmer of ruby-tinged red Vinho Verde tinto – rarely seen outside Portugal. A quantity of the wines made here are so fresh and youthful that they earn the moniker verde ('green'), which applies even to the reds. Although not sufficiently effervescent to be officially classed as sparkling wines, much white Vinho Verde has an obvious petillance. They are most often based on such classic Portuguese white-wine grapes as Arinto, Loureiro and Trajadura. The tart, zingy reds employ the services of the Azal Tinto, Vinhao and Espadeiro vine varieties.