Albarino/Vinhe Verde and Cheesey Nose?

I tried a Vinhe Verde (cousin of Albarino) from Portugal last night. Is it common with Albarino to sense a funky cheese???? note on the palette and the nose? Very, very funky odd. I wonder if this bottle was corked?

Brian,

I've been sampling some of these wines in the last few weeks. They're are hard to find. Of the 2 I've tried...

1) 2006 Gazela - had a nose reminscent of light petrol. Not unlike some Rieslings.

2) 2006 Santola - funkier nose. Not sure I'd call it cheesy. Rather more earthy.

Both wines were extremely dry, acidic,lightly sparkling and very refreshing. But, I've read that these wines are meant for consumption at thier freshest. Unlike most other wine bottles, the date is on a label up on the neck. You should be drinking the previous years wine....(i.e. now drinking 2006 in 2007). Nothing older.

The wines should be dry. I did read that some vintners were adding sugar to appeal to the US market, but have not run across any of those yet.

Maybe it was older bottle? I really like these wines.


Here is an excerpt I found from David Rosegarten about these wines as well as recommended producers:

Made from a jumble of little-known grape varieties in the northern corner of Portugal, this wine can be either white or red, though most of what comes to the U.S. is white. It’s something crisp to go with summertime clams, crabs, lobsters, and shrimp.

Background
One of the least-known, least-fashionable white wines in the American marketplace, this "green wine" is called such because the Portuguese habit is to drink it when it's super-young, or metaphorically, when it’s green. Nothing that costs four bucks a bottle will ever be fashionable.

Shopper’s Tips


Find last year’s vintage. Many of the Vinho Verdes on American wine shop shelves are not as young as they should be, which means they won't have the bracing freshness they should. In summer 2003, you should be drinking Vinho Verde from the 2002 vintage.

Look for a bottling date. On the back of the bottle is a serial number, followed by a slash, then a date. That date tells you the year in which the wine was bottled. The wine is always bottled after January--so if the number reads 349871/2001, it means that you have a wine from the 2000 vintage that was bottled in 2001.

Go for dry and sparkling. In Portugal, the wine is always very dry; unfortunately, some producers sweeten theirs a bit when they ship it off to sweet-tooth America. Those wines are much less attractive to me. Also, in Portugal, Vinho Verde always has a lovely sparkle to it; sometimes here it has gone flat. The best way to know if you have a good Vinho Verde on your hands is to taste it.
Recommendations
Some of the producers that most reliably ship authentic Vinho Verde to the US:

Adega Coopertiva de Ponte do Lima
Rei do Minho
Cruzeiro Lima
Mesa do Presidente
Quinta da Avaleda

-David Rosengarten

Vinho verde is made with a variety of grape varieties of inconsistent quality, like pedernã and loureiro. The word 'alvarinho' must appear if it's indeed made with the same grape (basically, produced only in the area of Monção on the Minho river, at the Spanish border) that's called albariño in Spain.

[James Roscoe]

Vinho verde is made with a variety of grape varieties of inconsistent quality, like pedernã and loureiro. The word 'alvarinho' must appear if it's indeed made with the same grape (basically, produced only in the area of Monção on the Minho river, at the Spanish border) that's called albariño in Spain.

Doesn't Vinho Verde mean "green wine"? Doesn't it imply white wine meant to be drunk young? I enjoy it for its simplicity. I always thought Albarino was a varietal. It appears I was wrong. Is it a region then?

Let's see... Vinho verde is a Portuguese appellation for the northernmost wine producing area in the country. There are red, white and rosé Vinho verde wines. Alvarinho, known as albariño in Spain, is one of the admitted white grape varieties in the region - the most prized of all. When a Vinho verde is an alvarinho varietal, it is allowed to have ythe word, 'alvarinho', printed on the label.

[James Roscoe]

Thanks Victor. Just shows what I don't know.

Let's see... Vinho verde is a Portuguese appellation for the northernmost wine producing area in the country. There are red, white and rosé Vinho verde wines. Alvarinho, known as albariño in Spain, is one of the admitted white grape varieties in the region - the most prized of all. When a Vinho verde is an alvarinho varietal, it is allowed to have ythe word, 'alvarinho', printed on the label.

This wine met this definition.