n.v. Filipa Pato, Blanc de Blancs, Brut Nature, 3B, Sparkling Wine, Bairrada D.O., Portugal.
The Filipa Pato Blanc de Blancs Brut bubbly is a lovely bottle and a savvy buy for Champagne style sparkling wine with class and distinction in the glass and a luxurious mousse to bring a real smile. There’s a lot to like here, Pato, who’s a darling of the organic and natural wine world and known for her beautiful Baga red wines, does a quality set of non dosage traditional sparkling wines, including this Brut Nature Blanc de Blancs and a fine Rosé, which I usually opt for. This wine, made from native varietal white grapes, 70% Bical, 23% Maria Gomes and 7% Cercial, coming from biodynamic vines set on chalky clay soils sees a primary fermentation in tank with wild yeast and a second fermentation in bottle with 9 months sur-lie aging. Again Pato uses zero dosage allowing a very dry profile and vibrant personality, while the yeasty notes are elegant and give complexity. This lot bottling shows vibrant citrus, quince, golden fig, clove spice, white blossoms, a hint of apple and wet stones, which adds sharp contrast to the rich brioche and doughy notes.
Filipa Pato, who is partnered by her husband William Wouters, a Belgian sommelier and wine enthusiast, as I’ve mentioned before, who started her own project in 2001 after working for the family estate in this coastal Portuguese region is now an established leader in Portugal. Pato, as the winery notes, a graduate of the University of Coimbra as a chemical engineer, has refined her skills working harvests in Bordeaux, Mendoza, Margaret River, and right at home in Bairrada with her father, Luis Pato, famous in his own right. She now works a total of 12 hectares of vineyards, only using native grapes, scattered in various plots throughout the Bairrada appellation. Filipa is now a celebrated star in the globally is admired for utilizing biodynamic farming practices and minimal-intervention winemaking, she and her husband, the famous, as mentioned sommelier and restaurateur William Wouters, produce, as they put it, vinhos autênticos sem maquilagem, ‘Authentic Wines Without Makeup’. While known for her reds, Pato does an incredible white made from 100% Bical, the best local white grape, from the ‘grand cru’ village of Oís do Bairro (Filipa’s hometown) that has the class and structure of a exceptional white Burgundy, as well as crafting this grower fizz, that is seriously fun stuff.
($22 Est.) 92 Points, grapelive