Monção e Melgaço (Alvarinho)

Monção e Melgaço is the riper, fuller, more textured face of the Albariño grape — here called Alvarinho — grown in the warm, sheltered Minho valley of northern Portugal and bottled as the fullest, most age-worthy white of the Vinho Verde region. Warmer and drier than the Atlantic coast across the border, it trades a little of Rías Baixas's raciness for extra body and ripe stone fruit, giving a dry, structured white of peach and apricot, citrus, white flowers and a saline minerality carried on vibrant, mouth-watering acidity.