Drinking Vinho Verde, which means “green wine” is a great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

 

Vino Verhde is not a grape varietal but instead a type of wine that comes from the Minho region of Portugal and has a DOC demarcation.  Vinho Verde literally translates as “green wine”.   Vinho Verde can be red, white or rose wine and is meant to be consumed within one year of bottling.  Personally, I prefer white Vinho Verde.  White Vinho Verde can be made from Loureiro, Arinto, Trajadura, Avesso, Azal or Alvarinho grapes.  My favorite Vinho Verde is made from Alvarinho grapes although it can also be tasty with Loureiro grapes.

Vinho Verde is light, crisp and has nice acidity.  It often has fruity and floral aromas.   Vinho Verde reminds me of summer and is a great picnic or apperitvio wine.  Often, vinho verde has some fizz  making it seem like a sparkling wine but it’s co2 pressure is under the limit to be considered true sparkling wine.    The alcohol content of vinho verde is usually low between 8-11% but with Vinho Alvarinho can go up to 14%.

Consider giving Vinho Verde a try in honor of St. Patrick’s Day today and if you want the chance to taste some great Vinho Verde and lots of other great Portugese wines all in one place, check out the Wines of Portugal Event in San Francisco on  Thursday May 9 at the Bentley Reserve http://portugal2013sf.eventbrite.com

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 17th, 2013 at 10:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Drinking Vinho Verde, which means “green wine” is a great way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!”

  1. Diana Combs says on March 19th, 2013 at 9:08 pm :

    The name literally means “green wine,” but translates as “young wine”, as opposed to mature wine. Very often the wine color is not very green, the closest would be with whites which are straw-yellow with a green tint. Just clarifying that, because I’ve had customers expect the wine to be literally green!