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Luis Pato, Bairrada Vinho Branco, “Vinhas Velhas”
I would not want to encounter today’s wine in a blind tasting exam—but I’m deeply impressed by its quality at nearly three decades of age. Crafted by one of the modern icons of Portuguese wine, Luis Pato, this old-vine white—and this vintage of it—has received a goodly amount of critical attention, but it’s still an outlier in comparison to the assorted whites of the world it resembles.
Its texture and aromatics hint at older white Bordeaux and some older dry Rieslings from Germany, and there’s minerality and acidity suggestive of aged Chenin Blanc from the Loire. There’s a hint of white Rioja in there, too. But enough with the guessing: This direct-from-the-winery 1991 is a blend of the indigenous varieties Bical, Cerceal, and Maria Gomes grown in Portugal’s Bairrada region—where Luis Pato has been the reference-point producer since the early 1980s. If this wine hailed from somewhere in France or Italy it’d be gobbled up eagerly by collectors, and likely at a much higher price. But the wine-drinking world is still finding its way from Port to the many exceptional table wines Portugal has to offer. This “Vinhas Velhas” Branco, along with its red (tinto) counterpart, has been hiding in plain sight for a while. It’s a delicious mature white from an international wine icon, and it’s ready to enjoy now with great friends and food. It’s a thrill for us to offer it, not to mention drink it!
Its texture and aromatics hint at older white Bordeaux and some older dry Rieslings from Germany, and there’s minerality and acidity suggestive of aged Chenin Blanc from the Loire. There’s a hint of white Rioja in there, too. But enough with the guessing: This direct-from-the-winery 1991 is a blend of the indigenous varieties Bical, Cerceal, and Maria Gomes grown in Portugal’s Bairrada region—where Luis Pato has been the reference-point producer since the early 1980s. If this wine hailed from somewhere in France or Italy it’d be gobbled up eagerly by collectors, and likely at a much higher price. But the wine-drinking world is still finding its way from Port to the many exceptional table wines Portugal has to offer. This “Vinhas Velhas” Branco, along with its red (tinto) counterpart, has been hiding in plain sight for a while. It’s a delicious mature white from an international wine icon, and it’s ready to enjoy now with great friends and food. It’s a thrill for us to offer it, not to mention drink it!
The Pato family has become synonymous with Bairrada, a region south of Porto along the Atlantic coast; further inland to the east is the Dão, and together the two regions are arguably the most famous sources of dry “table wines,” both white and red. Luis Pato’s father, João, was the first to produce estate-bottled wines with the name Bairrada, which was codified as a DOC (denomination of controlled origin) in 1980. These days, Luis’ daughter, Filipa, has become a well-respected grower/producer in her own right, working in the same Bairrada terroir: soils are mostly clay and limestone, with pockets of sand, while the climate is Atlantic-influenced and fairly mild, with ample rainfall.
As we’ve noted in other offers, Portugal still struggles to gain recognition for its wines other than Port; as Eric Asimov of the New York Times noted in a recent article about Bairrada, Portuguese producers (like Pato) have relied on local grapes to craft dry whites and reds. “Although some international varieties can be found,” Asimov writes, “most regions stayed true to their own grapes, which perhaps hampered efforts to market Portuguese wines outside of the country.” Thanks in large part to Pato, Bairrada’s red Baga variety—described by many as “the Nebbiolo of Portugal”—has gotten some traction internationally, but as of yet even the most experienced and well-traveled sommeliers have little exposure to the whites in Pato’s classic “Vinhas Velhas” blend.
The Bical grape, which has historically comprised roughly half of the Vinhas Velhas blend, is a high-acid variety especially prized for sparkling wine production, although it takes on some tropical notes and some textural weight when allowed to ripen fully. It is combined with smaller percentages of the highly mineral, more aromatically neutral Cerceal (not related to Madeira’s Sercial) and Maria Gomes, another hyper-local variety known for its spicy aromatics. The Bical is grown in clay/limestone while the Cerceal and Maria Gomes come from sandy soils; traditionally, the wine was fermented in stainless steel and aged for a year in Portuguese oak barrels, but these days the wine is unoaked. The 1991 was actually the last vintage that received oak aging.
This is not a wine that has been in wide release. As its importer told us, Pato is very “experimental” with his wines and holds onto significant stocks of all his releases to see how they evolve. Only after the importer tasted this ’91 during a visit to the winery did she manage to convince Pato to sell her some—about 100 cases total for the entire US—and here we are.
We can confirm that it was worth the effort. This ’91 has great textural richness and bold, still-bright fruit. Any oak influence in the wine is a distant memory at this point—this wine is all exotic fruit, florals, and lip-smacking combo of minerality and acidity. It’s a luminous deep yellow with gold and green hues in the glass, showing no excessive ‘browning’ from oxidation, with heady notes of dried apricot, orange marmalade, kaffir lime, beeswax, quince, wild herbs, dried flowers, and crushed white stones. Time in bottle has given the wine beautiful, palate-coating viscosity—but then it finishes on a crisp, drying, mineral/herbal note. For all its ‘petrol’ richness it still has lots of nerve and a hint of salinity, too; it feels like a white Bordeaux/dry Vouvray love child with a dash of well-aged Spätlese Trocken thrown in for good measure. Sound intriguing? Well, it is: I’d suggest pulling the cork about 15 minutes before serving this wine at 50 degrees in all-purpose white wine stems. It will blossom and drink well over the next 45 minutes with no dropoff, and would make an amazing accompaniment to a rich, aromatic Portuguese shellfish stew. It’s always exciting to offer a mature, world-class wine at such an affordable price; don’t miss it!
