Wine Region: Minho

(2012) One of the new wave of single varietal Vinho Verde wines, this is 100% Alvarinho (Spains's Albariño). Only two sub-regions are allowed to bottle single varietal Alvarinho, Melgaco and Monçõo, both hugging the Spanish border with Galicia. This with its modest 12.5% alcohol seemed just a little dull on this showing. It is full-textured and ripe, with some peachy fruit on the mid palate and a big blast of pithy citrus on the finish, but perhaps lacking the vital spark of the best examples on this showing.

(2012) Terrific nose, so fresh, herby, floral and dry but attractively bright. Lemon peel and tangerine tang. Great palate: crunchy, vibrant, searingly peppy and tangy, with so much zest and vitality. Flavour is packed in here, though there is a bit of gunflint reduction that you can taste in the finish.

(2012) In many ways simpler, with a clear citrus character, cool orchard fruits too. On the palate tangy and spritzy: very vivavcious, very sherbetty and cool with the lovely fruit flooding the mouth. Classic in style, and very juicy and vital.

(2012) This piles on the depth and intensity of fruit and aroma. Honey and obvious ripeness here, hinting at tropical. More luscious fruit. Some vergetal notes add to the complexity of the palate, but so much flavour, so much broad, green-bean tinged, fat lemnony fruit and huge natural concentration and freshness.

(2012) This has a lift of honey and flowers, really attractive, hinting at the exotic, but not overblown. Beautiful palate: pristine, ripe, sweet-edged fruit but such lime and lemon intensity and freshness. A touch of vanilla, but all about the fruit.

(2012) Organic and wild-yeast fermented, this has that slightly wild, sour cherry and Indian inky density and dryness of the Afros Vinhão I selected last year, with minerals and keen raspberry fruit too. Wow! An almost Champagne-like vivacity on the palate - not sparkling, but so much acidity and keen, lean, mouth-watering citrus and racy acidity. Deliciously different.

(2011) Deep colour but still green. Beautifully fruity nose, with lots of limes and wax, very Riesling-like. Little herby notes, but the fruit is ripe and orangy, with lots of flesh and a sweetness, the clarity and precision of the acidity and fruit still perfectly pitched.

(2011) Passito Loureiro with 12% alc, five months of drying. Fabulous nose, with cream and vanilla and lots of barley sugar creaminess, crème brûlée touches. The palate has absolutely delicious balance - the sweet, full fruit has a real sense of dryness with creamy texture and glycerine richness, Fantastic acidity bites against the 180 grams of sugar. Toasty, orangy, delightful.

(2011) The top level white, made from Alvarinho and Malvasia Fina. "A great Alvarinho from outside the Monçao area," says João, referring jokingly to the move by producers around the town of Monçao to make it 'Alvarinho central'. The winemaking is again overseen by Anselmo Mendes here. Delicately nutty notes, and the fruit is very fresh and crunchy: white fruit, but really the mineral notes dominate this wine. Lots of lemon and, silky, smooth, waxy apple fruit, with a really Riesling-like quality, with a huge core of concentrated lime acidity.

(2011) Alvarinho, Avesso and Chardonnay. This is the current vintage on the market, which João keeps for six years before releasing. A real waxiness, and some oxidation, with big, dry, parcel string charterer, like a maturing Semillon. There is a lovely acidity in the finish of this, playing against that waxy texture. Unusual, complex, with a slightly phenolic character.