Antonio from Quinta das Arcas flew over from Portugal to be with us for our Spring Into Summer Social recently. It was a long day of travelling to London and back home but besides sharing his story with our customers and prospects I had a moment with him to taste his wines and listen to his story.

Quinta das Arcas was created by Antonio’s grandfather, Antonio Esteves Monteiro, with some vineyards around their home. He built a winery in the basement of his house and started making wines. As the production was very limited at the time these wines were enjoyed during dinner parties at the house. All friends, family and neighbours were invited to taste and enjoy the wines combined with a feast of food!

When Antonio’s father took over they increased the vineyard area and moved the winery into a new building to cope with the larger volumes. Antonio’s father now still looks after the winemaking while Antonio looks after the export market and his brother, Mario looks after the local market.

Branco

This wine comes from the Vinho Verde region in Portugal, made from the indigenous varieties Loureiro, Arinto and Trajadura. It is a lighter style of wine with a lower ABV of 10.5%. The grapes are picked manually and the wines are vinified in the traditional way, quickly destemmed and pressed before going through cold fermentation. The wine is meant to be drunk whilst young. Showing aromas of citrus, green apple, grassy flavours and a slight petulance on the palate. The petulance is the traditional style of Vinho Verde as well as the original bottle shape. Traditionally there would be a second fermentation in the bottle but nowadays a bit of CO2 is added to the wine at the last minute to keep the wine fresh. This wine pairs beautifully with Sushi and other Asian food.

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Alvarinho

From the Northern regions, bordering with Spain and its famous Albarino’s. This wine has a higher ABV as the grape ripens early in the season creating more sugar in the grape that is used for fermentation. Alvarinho is a low yield grape which makes it more expensive to produce. The wine shows notes of tropical fruit and has more structure than the light fresh Vinho Verde.

Arca Nova Rose

This is a blend of various local varieties, Espadeiro and Torriga Nacional. It has the light and crispy profile from Vinho Verde and is great as an aperitif or to be enjoyed with a meal such as fish, grilled white meat, Japanese cuisine or even Chicken Piri-Piri!

We're delighted to have added Quinta das Arcas to our range. To find out more about their wines click here. To discover more about our new wine additions, take a look at our new wine list.