Photo Courtesy of Wines of Portugal.info

Vinho Verde is a large DOC in the North of Portugal with nine subregions. They are nine sub-regions in the DOC. Each one is  named after either a river or a town. They are Monção, Melgaço, Lima, Basto, Cávado, Ave, Amarante, Baião, Sousa and Paiva.

The weather is cool and wet cool while the soils are primarily granite.  Much of the wine is white made with indigenous grapes and is light, fresh and often fizzy in the glass. Acidity abounds and these wines are perfect for seafood and light appetizers. They also make red wines.

I love Portugal and have been lucky enough to visit a handful of times. I’ve never been to this reason though and reading about it makes me excited to think about traveling there when possible. In the meantime, I am learning Portuguese. Hopefully by the time I get there I can say more than “the book is on the table.” It is an exciting country and one that has so many indigenous grapes it makes my head spin. I didn’t have any Vinho Verde on hand and used Drizly.com to get some from a local store. They had one wine and I ordered it for the #WinePW weekend. However, for a number of reasons I never got around to writing the post up so here it is, two weeks later than I promised but better late than never.

The bottle I ordered was from JM Fonseca and was called Twin Vines. Made from a blend of four grapes, 70% Loureiro,  15%  Trajadura, 10% Pedernā  and 5% Alvarinho. This blend of floral notes from the Loureiro, wet stony Trajadura, creamy Pedernā and mineral Alvarinho had a slight fizz and nice acidity. It was very reasonable in price, around $13 if memory serves but perhaps even less.

The winery was founded in 1834 by José Maria da Fonseca. Today the winery has 650 hectares under vine. Some 60% of their wines are exported and they have many brands, 34. “Periquita is the biggest brand, followed by Lancers, Alambre Moscatel de Setúbal, João Pires and BSE,” according to their website. Lancers played a role in my wine development I must say. My Mother drank it often when I was a girl, that and Mateus. Setubal was one of the first places I visited the first time I went to Portugal. I bought pottery I still have, candlesticks and drank Moscatel, if memory serves. The 6th and 7th generation of the family are now running the company. This wine is dedicated to the twin daughters of António Maria Soares Franco.

Photo from Wines of Portugal.info

I paired it with homemade sushi. The light fizz nature of the wine was perfect with sushi. I made kappa rolls and salmon rolls. Nothing fancy but something I do now know how to make. I slammed my finger in the garage door today and practically drank this whole bottle on my own to numb the pain. It worked like a charm and was a welcome friend for me.

The other #WinePW bloggers wrote these great posts about Vinho Verde. Check them out.

• Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Cam shares Foods from Around the World Paired with Pink Wines from Portugal 
• Liz Barret of  What’s In That Bottle? is thrilled with Va Va Va Vinho Verde: the Portuguese White That Wows 
• Robin of  Crushed Grape Chronicles answers What is Vinho Verde? 5 things I didn’t know about this perfect summer wine 
• Wendy at  A Day in the Life on the Farm savors Tomato Poached Cod with Vinho Verde Wine. 
• Linda at My Full Wine Glass realizes that Distinctively ‘laurel” Vinho Verde Delivers with Seafood and Salad 
• Nicole at SommsTable is loving Vinho Verde and Simple Seafood Feast 
• Payal at Keep the Peas  is pairing Sem Igual Vinho Verde with Peixe Caldine 
• Gwendolyn at Wine Predator  says Vinho Verde: A Green Wine That’s White from Portugal Paired with Tuna, Tomato, Basil, Orzo #WinePW 
• Martin at Enoflyz is Pairing Maria Papoila Vinho Verde with Summer Pizza
• Terri at  Our Good Life savors Scallops, Smashed Peas and a Great Vinho Verde 
• Pinny at Chinese Food and Wine Pairing achieves A Successful Hunt Down of a Red Vinhao Escolha from Vinho Verde DOC #WinePW 
• Cindy at Grape Experiences has been reminiscing upon last fall’s work trip where she spent A Beautiful Morning at Quinta da Aveleda in Vinho Verde
• and here at Avvinare, I’ve shared Vinho Verde Meets Homemade Sushi