Herdade do Mouchão 2024 Ponte Branco
One sometimes meets wines that just insist on being bought by dint of their quality, and irrespective of tawdry commercial considerations! This is such a one – a simply masterful steel-then-barrel fermented rendition of an ancestral Alentejo variety that is today curiously not part of the D.O.C. system. Vividly aromatic, with a texture more muscular than voluptuous, it seduces as it enthralls. Miss it at your peril!
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Wine Specifics
WineWise Code | PMO-POB24 |
Country | Portugal |
Region | Alentejo |
Color/Style | White |
Destemming | Complete |
Fermentation Vessel | Stainless steel and Barrel |
Additional Fermentation Notes | Decanted juice from hand-picked Verdelho grapes starts its fermentation in temperature- controlled stainless steel vats before finishing the primary fermentation in new French oak barriques. Left on fine lees, battonage was carried out fortnightly for the first 12 weeks over the six months in cask and before bottling at 7 months, giving the wine its roundness and mouth-fill. |
Aging Vessel | 100% Used Barrique |
Aging Duration (months) | 7 months |
Filtered? | No |
Fining Agents | None |
Yeast Protocol | Spontaneous |
Malolactic Conversion | No |
Added Sulfur | Yes, 109 ppm |
Varieties | 100% Verdelho |
Residual Sugar | 0.9 |
ABV | 13.7 |
Acidity | 5.2 |
pH | 3.3 |
Closure | Natural Cork |
Annual Production | 8,470 bottles |
Soil Types | Alluvial, Gravel |
Elevation (meters) | 202 |
Vine Age | 21 |
Farming Practices | Practicing Organic, Certified Sustainable; PSVA certified |
Harvest Method | Hand-harvested |
Additional Harvest Notes | 2024 GROWING SEASON
A dry autumn and cold, stable winter contributed to a slow start to the growing cycle. Spring
brought balanced rainfall and moderate temperatures, supporting even budbreak and flowering. The summer was long and hot, and just a few brief heat spikes, allowing for steady ripening and good phenolic development. |
Notes from the Producer: WINE GROWING
A minimum portion of Verdelho was grafted in 2015 (from a 21-year-old Perrum vineyard) in the vineyards of Barragem and Mouchão Velho, with mostly skeletal, stony, and alluvião clay soils. The most sheltered lines to the east west are located on the banks of the large Mouchão dam, providing freshness, complexity and unusual concentration in the white wines of the region.
The Verdelho grape variety was already a reference in Mouchão since the beginnings of viticulture in Herdade. The famous travel writer W. H. Koebel wrote in 1909, in a complete chapter dedicated to Herdade do Mouchão in his book ""Portugal its Land and People"": ""...who visits the south of Portugal and Not tasting the true Verdelho may have my pity but not my sympathy.""
PROOF NOTES
This is a delicate wine, vibrant with balance and freshness, with almost imperceptible wood notes, voluminous, and with sufficient concentration suggesting its origin from the older vineyards of the Barragem and Mouchão Velho vineyards. Curiously, the DOC system has not yet recovered the centenary tradition of the grape variety in Alentejo and hence the use of the Alentejano Regional Wine classification.
SERVICE SUGGESTIONS
Extremely pleasant in its youth, this Verdelho will improve with time in bottle, perhaps even a decade. Accompanying seafood, fish, cold dishes, salads, fresh asparagus.
