Picotês - Palhete 2023

Pink Wine.

Precise, Spicy, Stoney.

Are you familiar with the Portuguese wine style known as palhete?

Palhete is quite simply a wine that is made from the mixing of red and white grapes. It results in a wine that has weight and texture like a red but the fresh, cleansing acidity of a white.

Now we're up to speed, I can safely announce that this wine is a doozy of a palhete!

Hailing from the oft-forgotten mountainous region of northwestern Portugal, known as Tras-Os-Montes, António Picotes has long had a passion for the produce if his region. These are the lands of ancient, wild traditions, unique dialects and of course amazing wine from wonderful local varieties.

Over the last few years Antonio has been tending to a selection of beautiful centenarian vineyards grown in the granitic, schisty soils found here that dot the hillsides around his town, Sendim. This has allowed him to release a limited but very delicious selection of wines.

This, of course, includes the palhete. 

The wine is made from 85% red varieties which include Tinta Gorda, Verdelho Vermelho, Bastardo, Tinta Fina, Tinta de Escrever, Tinta Carvalha, Olho de Rei and 15% white varieties such as Donzelinho Branco, Bastardo Branco, Malvasia, Verdelho, Formosa. This may seem like quite a sizeable list but there are at least a dozen more varieties that remain unidentified, their names being lost with time.

The grapes were harvested and foot trodden the stems in a granite mill before undergoing a 24 hour pre-fermentation maceration. After ferment, the wine was split with 50% going into used barrels for around 6 months and the other 50 remaining in steel.

Et voilà! Palhete paradise!