Portuguese whites: Panel tasting results

Sarah Ahmed, Nelson Guerreiro and Joanna Locke MW tasted 109 wines with 1 Exceptional, 4 Outstanding and 30 Highly recommended.

Portuguese whites: Panel tasting scores

109 wines tasted

Exceptional 1

Outstanding 4

Highly recommended 30

Recommended 55

Commended 17

Fair 2

Poor 0

Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release dry white wines from any region in Portugal other than Vinho Verde, and produced using native Portuguese white grapes only, including single-varietal wines or blends

Portugal has an exceptional diversity of grape varieties and terroir, making this panel tasting a stylistic smorgasbord. The standard of the country’s white wines has improved exponentially in the last decade. With a good 76% of wines here earning Highly recommended or Recommended ratings, the quality base was broad and the apex high. Expect to drink well from Portugal and expect to drink interesting, food-friendly wines from native grapes, which tend to a dry, rather than fruit-driven, profile.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores from the Portuguese whites panel tasting

While structure, mouthfeel, intensity and specifics such as Atlantic-influenced saltiness (Bairrada, the Azores) pointed to region of origin, the panel struggled to identify regional typicity. Partly because this is an emergent, fast-growing category and winemaking approaches vary, but also because of numerous varietal and site permutations, especially where blends predominate. It all adds up to an oxymoronic common thread: Portugal’s diversity. The upside is a rich mosaic to unpick.

Today’s brighter wines make for a vivid array. Years ago, wines from warm, dry regions often suffered from low acidity but, said Jo Locke MW, the wines we tasted were ‘certainly not flat, as in the past’. Whether from 2022 (hot and dry) or 2021 (mild and wet), this tasting’s overall freshness and balance impressed. Hand in glove with higher acidity, more than 80% of the entries featured 13% alcohol by volume or less, which ‘is a big change’, remarked Nelson Guerreiro. Producers are picking grapes and selecting sites with freshness in mind.

Together with no or low(er) oak use – another major shift – wines to be lighter on their feet, more nuanced and pleasurable. Increased use of large-format and seasoned barrels for controlled oxygenation – as opposed to overt oak flavours – meant that wood tended to be well integrated, enhancing structure and complexity.

About a third of the wines entered were unoaked, but stainless steel is no longer the default – an uptick in concrete, cement and clay vessels (including Portugal’s traditional talhas), brings the complexity of controlled oxygenation without added oak flavour or tannin.

See all the wines from the Portuguese whites panel tasting

Skin contact – pre, during and post-ferment – also contributed to complexity and phenolic mouthfeel, with the growing ‘orange’ wines niche sneaking into this ‘white’ tasting. If some of the entries were a tad outré, it is exciting to see the creativity. Although, cautioned Locke, ‘the ones who know what’s good to bottle are playing around more successfully than others’.

What should readers buy? The top five entries hail from low-yielding old vines or field blends in the Douro, Dão and Bairrada. Old vines and/or moderating factors such as the ocean (Bairrada, the Azores) and elevation (the Douro, Dão and Alentejo’s Portalegre sub-region) produced particularly intense, structured examples. But old vines – look out for ‘Vinhas Velhas’ on labels – can also elevate wines from regions and varieties traditionally associated with quantity rather than quality – Fernão Pires from Tejo, for example.

Portugal is known as a source of cheap wine and this tasting fielded some good examples, mostly from southern regions, where fruit tends to be rounder and riper. Cheap is not, however, synonymous with value – no disappointment here, either. As Guerreiro noted, one doesn’t ‘pay more than €100 retail for top Portuguese whites so, compared with some top wines in world, they are remarkable value’. At £32-£48, our top five scorers from virtuoso winemakers remain within reach, representing smart buys for connoisseurs.

Portuguese whites panel tasting scores

Wines were tasted blind

The judges

Nelson Guerreiro is a certified sommelier currently working as brand ambassador for prominent Italian producers at renowned Portuguese merchant Garrafeira Nacional, as well as a wine educator at the Turismo de Portugal schools.

Sarah Ahmed is an awarded wine writer, educator and judge with a focus on Portugal. The DWWA Regional Chair for Portugal, she is a Cavaleiro of the Confraria do Vinho do Porto and writes a monthly column for Revista de Vinhos.

Joanna Locke MW is a wine buyer for The Wine Society, responsible for sourcing wines from Alsace, the Loire and Portugal. Previously a buyer for Thresher group from 1991, she joined importer John E Fells in 2000, then moved to The Wine Society in 2004.

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