The 2012 Contraste white is a blend of Rabigato, Codega do Larinho, Codega, and Viosinho, with 30% of the juice aged in new French oak, the rest in tank. The oak is handled beautifully here, to a point where I had to double check that the statistics I got on oak treatment were accurate. The wine has a fresh and friendly feel. With slight tropical nuances around the edges and a touch of herbaceousness in its youth, this has a fruity and lively feel that makes it delicious and zesty. It has nice acidity and a solid grip on the finish. This is a nice value for short to mid-term drinking. If it lasts longer, let’s see where we are when we get there. There were 20,000 bottles produced. Drink now-2017.
Rita Marques is proving with each new vintage that she is one of the top Branco producers in the region. (The reds are nice, too!) She told me: “I have been driving my whites towards a style that is more and more focused and precise, and I think the crisp yet integrated acidity plays an important role on that. 2012 was not an easy harvest, since maturation came slowly, and you had to have nerves of steel to wait for the grapes. In the end, rain did not come and the grapes achieved the perfect maturation point. I am very pleased with the results, perhaps is the best white I ever made. After all these years, I have enough old barrels to make Conceito the way I design it.” Nota Bene: As I was writing this, I got very good news via a press release indicating that Conceito will be teaming up with Fojo owner Margarida Serodio Borges and Antonio Taveira to revive the Quinta do Fojo brand, which I rather loved. It periodically appeared in Douro in past years and then disappeared. (Another Quinta for which Borges was well known at the time, Manoella, went to Jorge Serodio Borges and Sandra Tavares da Silva of Wine and Soul, which then resumed production under their label.) The press release states: “While the 2013 wine ages, the team will relaunch the brand with a limited release of mature vintages of Fojo and Vinha do Fojo.” This could be very good news all around.
Importer: Vin de Terra Imports, Inc., Springfield, VA; tel. (703) 731-2058
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