Joe's Winos Wine Club Selections June 2021
Encostas do lima
Schist & Granite Vinho Verde
A whole lot of people have found out that Vinho Verde is the perfect wine to drink on a porch all summer long. Ecostas de Lima, a woman-led collection of almost 2000 growers making them the largest company in Ponte de Lima (the oldest town in Portugal) has partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture to dig deeper into the potential of Vinho Verde, and that’s how we came across this soil-centric project.
The nerdier side of wine is soil type, so Granite and Schist make perfect sense for us! Granite, composed of cooled quartz and magma, has a high pH and porous makeup, leading vines deeper for sustenance and creating high-acid grapes. Schist is similar to slate, with hard, dense metamorphic rock layered with minerals, and usually yields wines with higher aromatics.
Encostas do Lima did everything they could to make these wines different in solid type alone. Both wines are 100% Louiero grapes, between 70-120 meters elevation, 500 cases produced(of which Joe’s Winos took >10% of), fermented with the same yeasts to the same amount of residual sugar with no oak aging. The differences are all in the soil.
We tried Granite first, and there was big citrus on the nose, lime and lemon, with soft wet rock minerality and grassiness. The palate shows chalky minerality, guava and mango, finishing with clean, crisp fresh cut grass. The more inviting of the two, with maybe a little apparent RS.
Schist was immediately the louder of the two, with intense, salty ocean spray on the nose with lemon-lime soda. The palate confirms the oceanic climate with brininess and minerality, and tart grapefruit. A persistent finish stays with you longer than any Vinho Verde I’ve ever tried.
Pairings:
Drink these wines this summer on your porch, and if you really want to sort out the differences, drink them side by side. Pair with fresh seafood of all types, particularly white fish, shrimp, and clams with lemongrass.
Palacio de Burgo
Rioja Tinto 2018
Needs 30 minutes to breathe
It’s Tinto time in Tennessee!
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Rioja is the most popular region in Spain, and it became so well known with winemaking techniques gleaned from the Bordelaise, with the most prominent of those being the use of new oak. Bodegas Burgo Viejo, a collective of growers and producers dating back to the 1950’s, has quite a few wines that embrace that style, but the Palacio del Burgo Tinto represents a precursor to this style. Oak ageing gives wines more complexity and depth of flavor, but also adds spice notes, tannin, and in the case of Rioja’s American oak, vanilla.
Since this wine is just aged in used American oak and concrete vats on it’s lees, this is a bright, fun wine built for warmer weather. The little bit of oak ageing adds some muscle that lets this 100% Tempranillo hang with the grilled meats you will be cooking up all summer. There are dark fruits, with blackberry, blueberry, and anise complementing the cocoa and mocha from oak.
Pairings:
This wine is too perfect with flank steak, but would also go well with brats, herb pork, grilled salmon, or spicy sausage. Most Rioja have too much oak for spicy food, but this one can play well with spicy food, and would be amazing with beef enchiladas in red sauce or chiles rellenos.
Joe's Wine Terms: Lees