Description
Is this the best white of the year? If my notes are to be trusted, then it is: from the ungrafted 120-year-old vines first planted by Senhor Chaves in Alentejo in 1901, this is slightly honeyed, minty and herbal, salty, deeply textured like very old vine Loire Valley Sancerre without the varietal brashness of Sauvignon Blanc. Profound now but will greatly benefit from time in the cellar—a long time. One could simply retaste this wine for a month and add, brick by brick, a new tasting note with each soft turn of its evolution. To drink it quickly would be to miss witnessing its splendor. There are few cases imported because there are few made from these historic, nationally-treasured vines. Astonishingly good.