Exploring Vinho Verde: visiting star producer Anselmo Mendes
One of the most important people in the transformation of Vinho Verde from a region of gassy ephemeral wines into a more serious wine region is Anselmo Mendes. So I really needed to see him.
I met with Anselmo and his son Tiago (pictured above with Tiago on the left) at their Quinta de la Torre in Monçao, which looks down onto a 50 hectare Alvarinho vineyard, the largest single planting of this variety in Portugal.
Anselmo was originally from Monçao, so he’s born and bred in the region. His parents were farmers, and had some vines, which they harvested and sent to the coop.
At age 18, he went to Lisbon to study agronomy, and there he met his wife, and at the same time became interested in winemaking. He went on to work for negociant operation Borges in Porto: this was a great learning opportunity for him.
He began consulting, and worked with Gaivosa in the Douro, and Ameal in Vinho Verde. He was making wine for other people while he developed his own project, experimenting with Alvarhino in oak for a decade (1987-1997), making a wine called Muros de Melgaço, with a distinctive bottle shape. In 1998 he bought a small property in Melgaço. His inspiration was Burgundy.
In 2001 he started experimenting with fermentation on skins for whites: curtimenta. In 2005 he began working with Loureiro. And then in 2008 he bought the vineyards Quinta de la Torre, which had been abandoned. He restored them. In 2016 he bought the property, and restored that, building a shop, tasting room and five suites. He also built the ‘medieval’ winery and cellar in the house that dated back to the 14th century.
Altogether, Anselmo has around 130 hectares of vineyards, with 50 hectares of Alvarinho here, then 70 hectares of Loureiro spread across 6 different properties. He still buys in grapes. He’s begun recovering red varieties since 2012.
In 2023 he started a partnership with the Symingtons. They have made a wine since 2008 called Contacto Alvarinho and they acquired 50% of that brand.
Only does malic acid when there’s a lot of it, but in the last few years it has just been 2.5-3 g/litre.
Loureiro
Anselmo Mendes Muros Antigos Loureiro 2024 Vinho Verde, Portugal
12% alcohol. 10 tons/ha yields. A blend of vineyards in the Lima Valley. Lovely aromatics here: quite floral and expressive with some incisive citrus fruit. The palate is bright and lemony with lovely purity showing some texture and nice acidity. Benchmark Loureiro. 92/100
Anselmo Mendes Muros Antigos Loureiro 2015 Vinho Verde, Portugal
12% alcohol. Yellow gold in colour. Toasty nose with nice focus, a touch of oiliness and some lime. The palate is bright and lively showing nice acidity and lovely apricot, toast and lemon and lime characters. This is really expressive with amazing precision, and has developed really nicely. 93/100
Contacto Loureiro Mendes & Symington 2024
12% alcohol. This is fresh and vibrant with lovely juiciness and a tart acid line under the lemon and pear fruit. It’s really expressive with a brightness and vitality, and some spicy detail on the finish. Some mandarin and a nice bitter twist on the finish. 92/100
Anselmo Mendes Loureiro Private Parcela Vinha da Ferreira 2021
12.5% alcohol. 6 tons/ha. Alluvial soil with very little clay: more sandy. Sloped site. Stainless steel, no malolactic. This is vivid, concentrated and intense with bold citrus fruit and some wet stone minerality. This has keen acidity and a slight pithy bitterness on the finish. Delcious and quite serious. 94/100
Anselmo Mendes Loureiro do Tiago 2020
12% alcohol. Fermented and aged in used 400 litre French oak for 6 months on total lees. Concentrated and very refined with pure citrus fruit as well as some fine spicy detail. Juicy, crystalline, harmonious, showing good acidity. This is so stylish, with fruit purity but also another crystalline, mineral dimension. It’s five years old but it’s still primary and pure. 95/100
Alvarinho
Muros Antigos Alvarinho 2024 Monçao e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal
Highly aromatic with grapefruit and apricot as well as some lemons and a hint of herbiness. The palate is pure and expressive with lemon and lime, some apricot hints, and lovely texture, finishing nicely grainy. This has exquisite balance. 92/100
Muros Antigos Alvarinho 2015 Monçao e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal
Some colour, but less than you’d think with 10 years’ age. There’s some lime and toast on the nose. The palate is lively and bright with fine toast, a bit of creaminess, and nice spice-laden citrus fruit. A touch of apricot here. Very lively and focused, and quite delicious. 93/100
2008 was the first release of Contacto, which has 12 h skin contact – destemmed and crushed, given some skin contact, and then pressed.
Mendes & Symington Contacto Alvarinho 2024 Vinho Verde, Portugal
Fresh, bright and juicy with nice energy to the citrus fruit, showing some lightness and transparency, and then just a hint of structure and spiciness on the finish. Nice acid line here. A lovely focused, fruit-driven Alvarinho with some personality. 92/100
Anselmo Mendes Contacto Alvarinho 2012 Vinho Verde, Portugal
Golden colour. Honeyed, nutty and toasty with nice texture. Showing some development but still tastes quite delicious in a mature sort of way. Just a hint of bitterness on the finish. 90/100
Anselmo Mendes Contacto Alvarinho 2015 Vinho Verde, Portugal
Wax and honey on the nose as well as bright citrus fruit. The palate is vivid, lively and fresh with a tangy lemony edge and notes of pear and apricot. Nice freshness. This has aged really well. 93/100
Muros de Melgaço Alvarinho 2024 Monçao e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal
Fermented and aged in used 400 litre French oak barrels. Aged on full lees. This is linear and focused with a savoury edge to the lemony fruit, showing some structure and some juiciness on the finish. This is really linear and quite tightwound with some mineral tension. 92/100
Muros de Melgaço Alvarinho 2016 Monçao e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal
Full yellow/gold in colour. Subtle toast and honey on the nose with good acidity and notes of pear and citrus. The palate is powerful, linear and nicely dense with some lime and green apple, finishing finely spiced with good acidity. Still quite youthful at age 9, and ageing really well. 93/100
Anselmo Mendes Expressões 2021 Monçao e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal
From Quinta da Torre, a blend of the 8 different soil types, 9 months in used French barrel. This is pure and linear with lovely detail to the crystalline citrus fruit. Concentrated and very fine, this has a lovely fine grained, slightly spicy mouthfeel. Pure and refined. 94/100
Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho Parcela Única 2021 Vino Verde, Portugal
One single plot of the best grapes, fermented and aged for 9 months in new French oak (the only wine they use new oak for). Toast, vanilla and spice accompany the vivid citrus fruit on the nose. The palate is bold and lively with nice lemon, marmalade, spice and green apple characters. The oak is quite subtle and this wine should age really well. Lovely acidity on the tapering finish. 93/100
Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho A Torre 2019 Monçao e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal
This won’t me made every year. Four plots, 9 months in used French oak, then some bottle ageing before release. This is concentrated, pure, fine and shows nice acidity under the concentrated crystalline citrus fruit. There’s a beautiful purity to this wine, with real intensity, but no rough edges. Saline with some dried herbs and a great mineral extract. Beautiful. 94/100
Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho Curtimenta 2023 Monçao e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal
A couple of days on skins with a bit of fermentation (24 h) then pressed to barrel and racked after fermentation. Lovely nose of citrus, mint and some herbs. The palate is complex, lively and full flavoured, with mint, dried herbs and white pepper as well as bright lemony fruit. There’s a bit of saltiness on the finish, too. Such presence here: a distinctive and lovely expression of Alvarinho. 93/100
Anselmo Mendes Tempo Alvarinho 2020 Vinho Verde, Portugal
12% alcohol. Whole cluster Alvarinho fermented on skins. Golden colour. This is powerful, concentrated and quite salty with concentrated orange peel, mandarin, cherry and lime notes. It’s structured but not harsh with really good acidity, and a long saline finish. Such energy here. 94/100
Anselmo Mendes Tempo Loureiro 2019 Vinho Verde, Portugal
12.5% alcohol. Destemmed then fermented on skins. Golden colour. Powerful and expressive with some spicy structure under the bold lemon, marmalade and pear skin fruit characters. Such detail and complexity here with lots of fruit but also lots of structure and complexity. Very stylish. 94/100
Pardusco 2023 Vinho Verde, Portugal
12% alcohol. A blend of red varieties. This is the old name given to the red wines from the region, meaning light coloured, and these were exported to England back in the 14th century. This wine is a tribute to the style of those wines. This is juicy, bright, pure and delicious with a sappy green edge to the sweet cherry and raspberry fruit. There’s a slight herby edge which is appealing and really direct, light, expressive red fruit character. Such value for money (€7 in Portugal). 93/100
Pardusco Private Vinha Robo de Cuco 2022 Monçao e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal
This is just Alvarelhão, aged 2 years in barrel. This is really fine and elegant: a lighter-styled red wine with red cherry and redcurrant fruit, but also energy and refinement at the same time. There’s a nice acid line, a very fine spicy thread, and real purity and definition. So elegant, and not just a simple glugger – even though it’s lighter in style, it repays attention. 95/100
