Mouchão, Dom Rafael White, Alentejo, Portugal 2017

Mouchão is the most historic estate in the Alentejo, a region with a deserved reputation for producing consistently excellent wines. Still family owned, Mouchão has been making wine for more than a century and maintains the traditions established in 1901 when the winery was built – an elegant whitewashed adobe building, nestling in a valley and shaded by tall eucalyptus trees.

Mouchão wines are renowned for their longevity, maturing subtly as they age. Responsible husbandry and care in the vineyard is critical to harvesting the best fruit – and sustaining the estate’s healthy bee population. This wine is made from two local grape varieties, Arinto and Antao Vaz, from separate vineyards: Zé Rovisco, with 12-year-old vines on skeletal flintstone clay loam; and Barragem, with vines more than 20 years old. The larger Barragem vineyard lies on the shallow banks of the Mouchao reservoir, providing a freshness, complexity and concentration that is rare among Alentejo whites.

Grapes are hand-picked and foot trodden in marble cement lining lagares. This wine is fermented in large stainless steel vats at low temperatures and is bottled early so as not to lose it’s aromatic qualities and minerality.

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