Menina d'Una 2021 Vinho Tinto Ciste

Uva, Portugal

The first red-colored wine in her range, Ciste, is a mixture of 70% of the red grapes, Bastardo Preta (Trousseau in France) and Negreda (Mouratón in Spanish), and 30% white, with Malvasia, Bastardo Branco, Formosa, and some others in minuscule amounts. Here in the two villages of these vineyards, Junqueira and Matela, the soil is more clay-rich and alluvial, which makes for a supple wine despite its high aromatic lift, fabulously rich textures and unexpected palate weight. The grapes are completely whole bunch and co-fermented for only four days and aged exclusively in stainless steel. The short time on skins is intended to achieve good fruit and floral extraction but not dig too far before carbonic characteristics overwhelm the wine; she wants to keep this wine truer to the expression of the place and less to the fermentation technique that pushes up too much fruit and fermentative aromas to the forefront. The first vintage, 2018, was lights-out delicious. The following vintage was the same. This is the true charmer in the range and perhaps the easiest to lose track of while drinking, until it seems like the bottle must have sprung a leak in the twenty minutes since it was opened. In its youth, it’s aromatically effusive and bright, and carries the scents of this arid countryside and its moorland brush and sweet, poppy-like aromas. The fruit is concentrated around reds, oranges and yellows—think wild and snappy-to-the-tooth cherries, pomegranate, and the bright flavor of early fall Fuyu persimmons.