VINHO VERDE – ANSELMO MENDES

Anselmo Mendes is one of Portugal’s most revered winemakers. A native son of Monção and neighboring Melgaço. He hails from an agricultural family. After studying agronomy at the university, he began to specialize in wine, studying in both Portugal and France and enjoying a rapidly rising star as one of the most sought-after consulting winemakers in Portugal.

In 1998, he started out his own winery  producing his first own-label wines from rented vineyards in the Monção e Melgaço area. He focused on making wines bone-dry with minerals, no-fizz style which rocketed him to the top of the list as Winemaker of the Year in the Revita de Vinhos, Portugal’s chief domestic wine publication.  He garnered the charming nickname “Mr. Alvarinho”.  Anselmo’s skill with the grapes puts him into any conversation about the best producers in the Vinho Verde region and one of the most significant vineyards of Alvarinho.

Anselmo has extended his masterful touch to encompass both Loureiro from the Lima Valley and Avesso from Baião. Anselmo’s highly regarded award wining wines are sold in 40 different countries.

He owns 130ha of the vineyards in the Vinho Verde region where he grows Alvarinho and Loureiro grapes. The vineyards are managed under sustainable viticulture and are located in the subregions of Monção and Melgaço which has temperate climate and vineyards are protected from the ocean winds by the mountains. He uses of as fermentation with skins and fermentation in new and used oak barrels and the Atlantic influence allows for excellent whites to be produced.