2024 Anselmo Mendes, Loureiro “Contacto” Mendes-Symington, Vinho Verde DOC, Portugal.
The expressive, mineral intense and exciting 100% Loureiro from winemaker Anselmo Mendes at Mendes-Symington, a new project and program by one of Portugal’s most successful wine and Port families, comes from the Lima sub-zone in the classic Vinho Verde region. This 2024 Contacto, which stands for the short skin contact Mendes employs here that adds to the depth, complexity and texture in this wine, along with a sister Alvarinho (Albariño) version, is bright yellow in the glass and has heightened aromatics with a crisp, very dry medium bodied palate that gives an array of white peach, tangerine laced citrus, quince and mango fruits, along with wet salty stones, subtle herbs and jasmine notes. This is not your light and fizzy Vinho Verde, this is a more serious and stylish white wine made from an ancient native varietal that is a wonderful grape and capable of absolute brilliance, even though it gets largely overlooked when compared to the Alvarinho or Albariño, which has more world wide recognition. The Vinho Verde region, sometimes mistaken for a type of grape or a singular style, is a cool climate zone in Northern Portugal with a wet Atlantic influence and granite based sandy soils, which brings out the mine mineral tones and loads of natural acidity, as seen here. The vines used on this Loureiro are all organic and the grapes were 100% de-stemmed, cold soaked on the skins, maybe a few hours, fermented cool and then vat aged on the lees for 3 or so months with some batonage (stirring) before being bottled quickly to preserve its vibrancy.
The Symington family decided, as they note, to strengthen their long-running relationship with the legendary Vinho Verde producer Anselmo Mendes by forming the Mendes & Symington partnership in 2023. This joint venture between the two families aims to develop premium wines from the prestigious Monção and Melgaço sub-region of the Vinho Verde DOC in northern Portugal, especially important in this is the Symington’s marketing power and worldwide reach to customers.The company first acquired the renowned Alvarinho wine, Contacto, (produced by Anselmo Mendes) which has seen remarkable success in Portugal and now internationally, and which both families believe has great potential for further development, which can be seen with the new addition of the Loureiro version. Mendes & Symington has also just launched a range of premium wines from Casa de Rodas, that is a historic vineyard estate in Monção and Melgaço, originally founded in the 1800s and the first property in Portugal the varietal label a Alvarinho (Albariño) back in the 1930s. It was acquired by Symingtonin 2022 and their first harvest at the old estate was in 2023, again with Anselmo Mendes as the winemaker. I got a preview taste of this new wine and my own notes will follow soon, but I can say now that it was a fabulous effort that easily compares with the more famous Rias Baixas (Spanish) versions and I recommend searching it out, along with this excellent delicately floral Loureiro “Contacto” that has just arrived in the States. A big thank you to Eric Fountain, who works for the Symington family here in California, who showed this wine, and a tasty new set of Blandy’s Madeira(s), to a small gathering of wine industry professionals here in Carmel.
($25 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive