2+2=1! One Alvarinho which started inside a car and ended with Anselmo handling cooking pots
Beginning of 2015 harvest. I am driving with Anselmo Mendes, on the first few of the thousand kilometers I drive during this time of year, up and down, down and up, between the different wine regions where I manage different projects in partnership with the Master. We have always spoken about making a wine together, one that wasn’t just the end result of our normal work; we wanted something more than that, we wanted a wine which integrated the features that distinguish us. But what could it be?
Naturally a white wine.
And if it is white, it needs to be an Alvarinho.
After all, the idea was quite obvious. We wanted to honour the most important white grape variety of Portugal, the one Anselmo knows the best and had already taken to the highest level. Then we had to do something different, and we started to fine tune the idea.
What about doing a wine of two diferente regions? One Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho from Vinhos Verdes region, and a Diogo Lopes Alvarinho from Lisbon Wine Region? We have the Alvarinho I work with at Adega Mãe, I keep the best barrel and we blend both.
It makes sense! Now I just need to convince Adega Mãe to agree with it!
Of course, Bernardo Alves, the CEO of Adega Mãe, agreed immediately. So much that we ended up doing the blend and bottling at Adega Mãe. There we blended the Master’s Alvarinho, made as only he knows how, and the Alvarinho from Adega Mão, made under my supervision and idea. The two wines fermented for six months in old 500L French oak barrels, and in the end, we ended up with a 50/50 blend of both regions, which makes it even more special. And just like that, a new style of Alvarinho was born, a new interpretation of the most important Portuguese grape variety.
Adega Mãe was also the place we chose to launch the wines. We wanted to do something very informal, even something unlikely and that was a success. We organized a tasting with journalists and wine critics with a lunch cooked by Anselmo himself. The Master turned chef for a day, and he showed that even with cooking pots he is an expert. In the end the wine matched really well with the lampreia, it was praised for that as well. After this, the portuguese press, specialized in wines, for example the magazine Vinho Grande Escolhas, scored it 18 points in the tasting and catapulted the wine directly into the top portuguese Alvarinho wines. Amazing!
In the end, the result was a wine that combines the more austere side of Monção with the exuberance and even the salinity of the Lisbon area. This way we were able to merge the characteristics which better express the two different terroirs. 2 regions, 2 winemakers, 1 Alvarinho.
That’s the reason why we named it 2 2 1.
Are you served? The wine is still available, we just don’t have lampreia…