Serendipity led us to Quinta de Paços, and we’re so glad that it did. I stepped up my media company’s Twitter account about a year ago to focus exclusively on the Broken Azulejos project, and my exploration of Portugal. In building a following organically, I exchanged tweets with Quinta de Paços, a winery based in Minho—an area of Portugal that has intrigued us since we first drove through it a couple of years ago.
So, we had been following each other for a few months… just in a Twitter kind of way, and Paulo Ramos invited us to visit the next time we struck out for points north. The first week of October, this year (2018), proved a great opportunity.
For a quinta leveraging modern means of social marketing, Quinta de Paços has produced wine for many generations. In fact, Ramos counts six of his ancestors on the family tree to whom he’s genetically tied. “I’m six times the legacy,” he laughs, and it’s a role he has taken on with his father in shepherding the quinta into its next century.
Accolades for Quinta de Paços began in the late 1800s, and the quinta’s estate near Barcelos, in Rio Covo Santa Eulália, has grown room by room since long before then. But within the 17th-century stone walls, the quinta has also pursued modern approaches to winemaking. For example, the traditional way of training Alvarinho and Loureiro vines in the Vinho Verde DOC involves trellising them up into high pergolas, ostensibly for better ventilation and air movement around the grapes.
When asked about that famous system, Ramos laughs. “The modern way [a more Burgundian style of pruning and training the vines] gives much better results.” And as we walk around the estate’s eight hectares, we see those results. We also note that Quinta de Paços has planted grape varieties beyond those normally within the DOC. Rows of Sauvignon Blanc vines, for one, and Moscatel Galego Branco, for another.
These latter grapes still hang on the vines, the last of the quinta’s to be harvested. Ramos invites us to taste some, comparing those that are just ripe with those that have raisined a bit past the peak. These will transform into a late harvest wine. The perfumed complexity of the Moscatel is one of my favorite fragrances, and these hold much promise for this vintage, as uneven as it has been throughout Portugal.
We stopped under a towering chestnut tree, clearly the elder statesman of the quinta, its branches shedding spiky balls housing the beloved nut onto the grass. Ramos’ father has also planted a test forest on the property, to demonstrate that under certain trees, no undergrowth will thrive. Ramos hopes to turn the grove into a shaded retreat for picnics as the winery’s enotourism grows.
Ramos showed us back into the winemaking building, where the newest wines just in from this vintage fermented in various stages in stainless steel tanks. Most of the quinta’s production is white wine, as is normal in the DOC, though Ramos also vinifies the red Vinhão grape—this season to become a rosé, which we tasted in process. He also gave us samples from several of the whites as they showed their progression through fermentation. The Arinto, the Sauvignon Blanc, the Alvarinho, the Loureiro—all on different days of the roughly two-week cycle. It proved an excellent primer in the transformation of the wines’ sugars to alcohol, as the overlying sweetness gave way to the underlying acidity that would remain in the wine. My understanding of the magic improved with the lesson.
Finally, we sat down in the oldest part of the manor house to a long table set with glasses for our tasting. Ramos led us through no less than 11 wines, all whites, from both the estate in Rio Covo and the 10 hectares the quinta owns near Monção, almost on the border with Spain. Later that weekend we drove past those vineyards and noted how differently they are sited from the ones further south, more embedded into the forests for shelter it seemed.
We began with a series of the Casa de Paços bottlings, the quinta’s everyday wine, with single varieties (Loureiro) and blends of the Alvarinho and Loureiro, adding Arinto and Fernão Pires (which is also known as Maria Gomes in Bairrada and elsewhere). A single-variety Arinto, in particular, we enjoyed, along with a standalone Fernão Pires. The subregion of Cávado, where the main quinta is based, has soils with a high degree of quartz.
Of the quinta’s wines from Monção, we tasted a reserva series advancing in age, so that we could compare across the vintages. Growing in complexity and richness, these wines from the special Monção and Melgaço designated area within Vinho Verde show off that part of the region’s proximity to the mountains, in higher elevation and rockier soils—the roca amarelha samples that we held in our hands as we tasted at the table. The freshness across all of the quinta’s wines comes from this ground, and from the careful winemaking practiced after the harvest. In particular, I loved the florals running through many of the quinta’s selection that we tasted.
We left with a brace of bottles to enjoy on our travels, and a promise to keep following each other—in that winemaking kind of way!
Rio Covo-Santa Eulália, Portugal
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Tasting Notes: October 6, 2018
Casa de Paços 2017 Loureiro & Arinto
From the quartz-laden soils around Cávado. Hay and granite on the nose, with an aroma of biscuits after opening up. Lemon custard on the palate. 12,5% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2017 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde
Style: Fresh, everyday white
Variety: Loureiro and Arinto
Price: €4,55
Morgado do Perdigão 2017 Alvarinho & Loureiro
Also from the quartz-laden soils around Cávado, and also of the round pebbles of Monção–a 50/50 blend of both terroirs. Light fresh orange flowers, fennel and minerals on the nose. Laranja and a touch of beeswax on the palate plus other bright citrus. 6,2% acidity; 13% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2017 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde
Style: Fresh, lively white
Variety: Alvarinho and Loureiro
Price: €6,56
Casa de Paços 2017 Loureiro
Also from the quartz-laden soils around Cávado. Little white flowers plus beeswax on the nose. Brighter grapefruit on the palate, showing the 7 grams tartaric acid per liter—making it the most acidic of the quinta’s wines in the 2017 vintage. 12,5% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2017 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde
Style: Bright citrusy white with moderate acidity
Variety: Loureiro
Price: €5,50
Casa de Paços 2017 Fernão Pires
Also from the quartz-laden soils around Cávado. Elderflower and petrol on the nose, with wet straw. Florals continue on the palate balanced with a bit of tropical fruit, much like a Gewurtztraminer. 12,5% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2017 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde
Style: Floral, dry white
Variety: Fernão Pires
Price: €5,20
Prazo do Cotovia 2017 Moscatel Galego
Also from the quartz-laden soils around Cávado. Honeysuckle and jasmine aromas, with a mouthful of honeyed citrus on the palate. 12,5% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2017 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde
Style: Midweight, floral white
Variety: Moscatel Galego Branco
Price: €6,80
Superior Family Blend 2017
Also from the quartz-laden soils around Cávado. This white blend shows lemon peel, zest, and sunny straw throughout, with a bit of grass coming through from the touch of Sauvignon Blanc. 12,5% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2017 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde
Style: Lively, everyday white
Variety: Alvarinho, Loureiro, Fernão Pires and Arinto, with 2% Sauvignon Blanc
Price: €7
Casa do Capitão-Mor 2017 Alvarinho
From the subregion of Melgaço and Monção and its granite-based soils. Lemon zest, spices on the nose, with Meyer lemon and golden apple tastes. Like a cool-climate unoaked Chardonnay. 13% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2017 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde/Monção e Melgaço
Style: Midweight, golden citrusy white
Variety: Alvarinho
Price: €9,50
Casa do Capitão-Mor 2016 Alvarinho Reserva
From the subregion of Melgaço and Monção and its granite-based soils. From older vines, with 100% maceration. Ruby red grapefruit and orange blossom aromas, with the taste of ruby reds going on through the palate, very full, juicy, lovely. 13,5% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2016 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde/Monção e Melgaço
Style: Midweight, grapefruity white
Variety: Alvarinho
Price: €12,50
Casa do Capitão-Mor 2015 Alvarinho
From the subregion of Melgaço and Monção and its granite-based soils. The acidity has mellowed, showing chicken stock with bay leaves in its aromas, and the golden tastes of sultanas on the palate. 13,5% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2015 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde/Monção e Melgaço
Style: Midweight, golden and full white
Variety: Alvarinho
Price: €7, on sale from €9,50
Casa do Paços 2016 Arinto Reserva
From the area around Cávalo. The only one aged in oak, with used (1-2 years) French and American barrels. Geranium on the nose, just past full bloom. Kumquats and vanilla on the palate. 13% abv.
Vintage & Producer: 2016 Quinta de Paços
From: DOC Vinho Verde
Style: Midweight, vanilla-tinged white
Variety: Arinto
Price: €9