Aveleda: Vinho Verde - Fine Wine from Portugal

Kevin Ecock's WinePod

Vinho Verde has been on our shelves as long as I have been in the wine trade - a long time! That said, I always thought of it as a wine and not a region. A few brushes in the past with poor quality Vinho Verde styles then led me away from both wine AND region. Poor choice. My loss!

On a recent visit to Ireland the good folk from Aveleda transported me to the fabulous quality that the region is capable of. Indeed, I was introduced to wine styles that completely blew any notion of 'green' wines' away for ever.

Vinho Verde is one of 14 demarcated wine regions in Portugal. It sits in the Minho region above the Douro river, below the Minho river and with the Atlantic ocean to the west. It is primarily a white wine region with a load of permitted grapes, most of which we have never heard of! Of these the Alvarinho and Loureira make up the majority of exported wines. Red and Rose wines are also produced.

In the podcast Teresa Olivera (see above) of Aveleda guides us through the region and the fabulous wines made under the Aveleda label. These are wines made by the same family for the past 150 years. These are really top class.

Aveleda is distributed in Ireland by the award winning Mackenway Wines.