Vinho Verde

I’m on a mission to raise the profile of Vinho Verde. I served it at my birthday party last month and it proved a perfect lunch time wine given its freshness and relatively low acidity. I served the Arca Nova from Quinta das Arcas supplied by Casa Leal. My tasting note can be found on Adegga.

This week saw the “The Boys are back in town” a trade event in London organised by the Vinho Verde Wine Commission CVRVV. There appears to be a renewed enthusiasm and interest in Vinho Verde amongst the trade and consumers and, with journalists such as Jamie Goode a real fan, then there is the beginning of a “buzz” about the wines with exports increasing by 11% from 2008 to 2010, no mean feat in today’s difficult economic conditions.

There were some really good wines at the event and it’s interesting that of the 15 producers at the event 7 are looking for UK representation. In my role as a Naked Wines Archangel I was keeping my eyes open for wines they could import and I did pass on two names whose wines I particularly enjoyed. When I talk about the wines I am restricting myself to the whites. There were some reds at the tasting which were not for me. The Portuguese can keep them for the moment

The web site belonging to the CVRVV  is well worth checking out. I love Portugal having been to the Algarve several times and also to Lisbon. The Minho region which is where Vinho Verde comes from sounds gorgeous and the web site has a neat tool to allow you to plan a route between wineries where you can taste, vineyards you can visit interspersed with other tourist things to do. It even recommends places you can stay and you can build all this up into a map you can print off Google Maps giving directions and driving times. They really are making it easy for the wine lover to visit the region.

I hope I get to go sometime soon.