Farming : Organic | Biodynamic

Winemaking : Hand-Picked Grapes | Native Yeast Fermentation | Unfined | Unfiltered | Vegan

Region : Vinho Verde, Portugal

Grape : 50% Avesso | 50% Azal

Alcohol by Volume : 11%

Notes:

The Bojo do Luar project came to life during a trip Savio Soares (Importer) made to the Vinho Verde region. Here he met Fernando Paiva, a biodynamic producer who has been experimenting with adding ground chestnut flowers to the grapes and must before fermentation began. Meanwhile he’s halted using SO2 altogether since 2017.

Fernando is a regional reference for non-interventionist winemaking. He was the first Portuguese producer to acquire the DEMETER certification and through him Savio met another producer, Antonio Sousa, who practiced biodynamic viticulture, but still used traditional and conventional winemaking methods in the cellar. Savio was undeterred and saw this as an opportunity: to use the traditional autochthonous varietals of Northern Portugal, and apply his knowledge and experience of many decades working with French producers, mainly in Burgundy and Loire.

With Antonio’s winemaking experience and openness to experiment using a non-intervention approach in the cellar, the Bojo do Luar wines started to take shape.

This wine is a testament to the potential of Northern Portugal’s white grape varietals! They produce ele- gant, high-toned wines you can dance with! The Avesso was destemmed and kept in stainless steel tanks, macerating for five months. It was then pressed and separated from the skins in January. It adds great tension and tannins, with a lively stone fruit character to the final blend.

The Azal was directly pressed and fermented without temperature control. It had a more pro- nounced mineral acidity akin to lemon zest and artichoke brine qualities brought into the blend.

Half a kilo of ground chestnut flowers were added to the tank of Avesso and Azal at pressing.

The final blend had equal parts of both wines and shows an exceptional potential for evolution, along with beautiful aromatic complexity and a briny mineral texture.