Exploring Vinho Verde: the articulate low intervention wines of Márcio Lopes
Website: https://mlw.pt/en/
Márcio Lopes makes some brilliant naturally inclined wines from Vinho Verde and the Douro. He’s doing it in quite a parcellated way: each year there will be around 50 different vinifications, from 200 different plots. He’s been making his own wines since 2010.
One of Márcio’s emphases has been to focus on old varieties, some of which are in danger of being lost. ‘It’s very hard work,’ he says, ‘but I’ve already discovered 15 varieties here in Melgaço.’
We take a trip out to a beautiful old vineyard, Quinta do Paçô. He’s been recovering this vineyard for the last five years, and is now in the process of buying it. It was planted in 1932 with mixed varieties. It’s hard to source vineyards here: they are tiny, and people hold on to them. ‘To find 1 or 2 hectares together is very hard,’ he says.
Paçô is 0.5 hectares, and it’s terraced. It also has other crops growing in the middle of it – very old school. He gets around 1000 bottles from here. The bunches from these ramada vines tend to be big and closed, so they can explode with rot: they are thin skinned. Viticulture needs to be attentive.
In Melgaço there is more metamorphic granite, he says, giving more concentration. In Monção the soils are heavier and the wines are fruitier.
Pequentos Rabentos Lote 3 2024 Vinho Verde, Portugal
5.5% alcohol. Alvarinho, Loureiro, Trajadura. Reverse osmosis. Fresh, light, lemony and tart with some herby hints to the crisp fruit. Light and tart. It’s a bit more expensive than the normal wine because of the cost of the dealcohlization process. 86/100
Pequenos Rebentos Loureiro Cuvée 2024 Vinho Verde, Portugal
11.5% alcohol. Sourced from 5 hectares of vineyards around 20 years old, from Ponte de Lima, Barcelos and Braga. 6 months in stainless steel, no malolactic fermentation. Lovely fruit intensity here: bright with good acidity and vivid lemony fruit. Direct, linear and incisive with lovely acidity supporting the bright fruit. 92/100
Pequenos Rebentos Alvarinho 2024 Monção e Melgaço, Vinho Verde, Portugal
13% alcohol. 70% from Melgaço. Metamorophic granitic soils with small berries and strong skins. Low juice yields of 50%. No malolactic, aged on fine lees in tank. Powerful and intense with citrus, apricot and cherry, with a nice mineral undertow. This has quite an impact. Very fruit forward and quite serious. 93/100
Pequenos Rebentos Atlântico Red 2023 Vinho Verde, Portugal
12% alcohol. This is a blend of Docal, Cainho Tinto, Pedral, Alvarelhão and others. 80 year old vines. Comes in with 14 g/l at harvest with 12% potential alcohol, and there’s usually 4-5 g/l of malic acid. Wild ferment 45 days with 50% carbonic maceration in chestnut vats, and 50% foottrodden. Both are pressed and joined together in used French oak, and do malolactic here. This is light red in colour. It’s supple and juicy with fine redcurrant and red cherry fruit. So fine and supple with nice tartness, showing real elegance and precision. Has a nice sappy edge. 94/100
Pequenos Rebentos O Caminho Alvarinho 2023 Vinho Verde, Portugal
13% alcohol. Grapes from Melgaço. A combination of skin fermented (7 d on skins) with stainless steel standard fermentation, followed by 10 months in used French oak. This is concentrated and powerful with some spicy detail and a bit of structure, as well as wet stone minerality. There’s citrus but also a touch of apricot. Lovely texture as well as keen acidity. Very pure and fine, with juicy acid on the finish. 93/100
Pequenos Rebentos Vinhas Velhas Loureiro 2023 Vinho Verde, Portugal
12.5% alcohol. A vineyard planted in 1989 with a small bunch clone of Loureiro. The idea is to work on the lees and this is fermented in barrel (from Puligny-Montrachet). This is very taut and fine, with lean citrus fruit and a touch of pear and green apple. Juicy and shows high acidity with a stony finish. Pure, linear, taut and quite lovely. 94/100
Pequenos Rebentos Azal Selvagem 2021 Vinho Verde, Portugal
12.5% alcohol. In flowering they remove a couple of leaves in the region of the flowers so the fruit set isn’t 100% in the cluster. Enforcada planted in 1932. Destemmed grapes, foottrodden then fermented in amphora for 30 days, then 9 months in used barrels. This is powerful, stony and mineral with keen acidity. This has some structure but also great acidity, with lovely tension and focus to the fruit. Really fine and pure with a long finish. 94/100
Pequenos Rebentos Touché 2022 Vinho Verde, Portugal
12% alcohol. Bastardo, Alvarelhão, Cainho Tinto and others. Single plot (we visited it) planted in 1937 in Melgaço. 50% foot trodden, 50% carbonic. Pale in colour. So fine, pure and supple with red cherry and redcurrant, showing nice tension with good acidity and lovely purity. Supple with some stony, mineral undercurrents. Very pure and fine with a pure stone finish. Such finesse. 95/100
Pequenos Rebentos Viagem Ao Princípio do Mundo Alvarinho 2021 Monção e Melgaço Vinho Verde, Portugal
13% alcohol. Single vineyard Alvarinho from Melgaço, skin fermented for a month and then pressed and aged 18 months in Sherry casks with a flor veil. Powerful, linear, firm, nicely structured with a salty tang to the vivid citrus fruit. Such intensity with great acidity. Has some waxy detail with nice crystalline citrus fruit. Such a finish with lovely acidity. 94/100
