"Sou" Alvarinho de Monção e Melgaço

Rock in the glass! An elegant wine with an invigorating dynamism that makes you want to open it every day.

This is a joint project between Joana Santiago from the eponymous Quinta de Santiago in Monção and winemaker, oenologist and producer Nuno Mira do Ó, one of Portugal's most famous "flying winemakers". Born from a sincere friendship and inspired by rock music, a shared passion beyond wine! A rebellious and authentic wine, raw and pure expression of the Monção and Melgaço "terroir".

The nose is complex and shows with the aeration in the glass, notes of apricot, lemon leaf, spices, wild flowers and wet stone. In the mouth it shows great texture, freshness and persistence. The acidity is in great harmony with the volume and moderates the aromatic notes in a very long, exciting and delicious finish.

Handpicked, soft pressing, natural decanting. Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts of 40% of the must in used 400 liter barrels, 50% of which spontaneously carried out the malolactic fermentation. Slow fermentation of 60% of the remaining must in barriques. Then stored on the fine lees for 9 months and matured in the bottle since August 2019.

Pairs well with a wide range of dishes such as tomato salad, cockle xerém, steamed mussels, grilled sea bass, succulent tuna, seared quail, pickled partridge, spicy guinea fowl or Iberian pork ribs

The story of Nuno is similar to the story of many young talented Portuguese oenologists with a vision and a dream. He belongs to the first generation in Portugal who have learned winemaking, the so-called oenology, and who see their country as a kind of playground. Salazar's dictatorship "frozen" the country for several decades, leading to national bankruptcy and eventual Troika control. But the Portuguese are fighters and freed themselves from this unsatisfactory situation on their own. When it comes to wine, the country has hardly specialized in the many internationally successful, mostly French grape varieties, but concentrates primarily on its own countless autochthonous grape varieties. In fact, Portugal has the largest selection of autochthonous grape varieties in the world. This is exactly what Nuno and his partner are interested in.

Together with João Corrêa he worked for several years as an oenologist for the Companhia das Quintas until one day he met João Soares from the Caves Messias. Together, the two decided to make a red wine from the Baga vine in Bairrada and that is how the project, or rather the Alías wine, was born. They then decided to make a white wine from the Encruzado vine in the Dão, the Druid. Both wines are so-called "Garage Wines", which are produced in very small quantities.
With the Mira, Nino wants to show the potential of the terroir of the Bucelas region and the Arinto grape. A nice coincidence that Nino's last name is Mira do Ó and "Mira" translated into German means "to show". A very apt play on words for this naming.

Manufacturer address: C2O Lda. Rua Professor Francisco Gentil, 16 - 4oE, 1600-236 Lisboa, Portugal