It’s time to get amused. Again. The most planted variety of the Vinho Verde region, Loureiro, knows how to show itself off. Apparently it does so only in the right hands and in the right spot.
As with many aged Vinhos Verdes, Aphros 2015 is virtually impossible to buy in 2023. It doesn’t matter, though: memories of it may change your idea of Vinho Verde and its sparkling wines. I still recall another great example of VV winemaking — Anselmo Mendes’ Muros Antigos 2008, the wine to die for.
Aphros ’15, the classic method Loureiro aged for four months sur lie in steel and then another 16 months in the bottle. If you’re really curious, the dosage after disgorging was a modest 5 grams. On paper it looks like a high-end espumante: more than a year in the bottle is quite something for Portugal and for any other country, for that matter.
If Bruto Reserva 2015 gets poured to you at random, without looking or explaining, stop it, put it down, relax. This sequence is important: the bubbly deserves it. Nothing can stop you from safely putting it on the same bar as the beloved bottling by João Portugal Ramos — Alvarinho Brut Nature 2015. Looks like 2015 is a magical year for sparkling Vinhos Verdes.
Winemaker Miguel Viseu and the owner Vasco Croft have their hearts in the right place. Someone wrote of it “soul and soil”: a great way to put it. This one makes you stop and think: “what?” Gorgeous, slightly autumnal, bubbles, the structure cleverly bundled up and served on a beautiful Portuguese platter. Lasts longer than you expect, tongue-tickling and open-minded. The texture, the longevity, the beauty.
A seven-year-old Loureiro looks like a miracle.