Cabeças do Reguengo - Vira Cabeças Branco 2022

White wine.

Structured, Unctuous, Floral.

The Vira Cabeças Branco is a hell of a white wine. Made by João Afonso and his team up in the Serra de São Mamede, this wine pulses with the energy of these ancient and oft forgotten mountains.

Although located in the Alentejo region, the Serra de São Mamede ought to be its own region as everything about is just so different. Instead of flat, hot plains, the region has mountains that provide vineyards with up to 700m of altitude. Instead of the usual schist soils of Alentejo, these mountains have granite. And instead of the large scale vineyards that stretch to the horizon, this little region, rocky and undulating that it is, only allows space for small plots of vines.

João works with up to 30 different growers who all farm small patches of old vines. Due to the difficulty of working the land, the region has been left in the hands of subsistence farmers who care for the vines in order to produce their own supply. These are the grapes that João procures and they are from stunning vines that are often well over 100 years old.

These are all a big mix of varieties and they are carefully vinified to make what are, in my opinion, some of the best whites in the country.

For this particular wine, it is a field blend of up to 15 different varieties (Arinto dominant) which was fermented with native yeasts and then aged for 15 months in Estonian and French oak barrels. Killer stuff!