FÍLIPA PÁTO AND WILLIAM WOUTERS "Nossa Calcário" Baga 2018

(Bairrada, Portugal) $37

If you’ve never had a wine made with the red grape variety baga, and never experienced a wine from the Portuguese region Bairrada, this wine is the perfect must-try. To begin with, it’s hard to imagine a more passionate winemaker than Fílipa Páto, who learned viticulture and winemaking from her grandmother and father. With her chef/sommelier husband William Wouters, she is determined to prove baga’s and Bairrada’s potential to the world. Their beautifully structured wine Nossa Calcário, from biodynamically farmed 80 to 130 year-old vines growing in limestone-laced soils, goes a long way to doing that. Its big thrust of flavor—spices, leather, tobacco, fennel, cocoa and vanilla—is interwoven with a wonderful sense of freshness and aliveness. A naturalist, Fílipa uses the aloe plants surrounding her vineyards to make an infusion which she sprays on the vines as a sun protectant. This wine and some grilled lamb, and your weekend is set.  (12.5% abv)

94 points KM

Available at Spectrum Wine