Better to drink than pack, 5/60: Vinho Verde

**It’s official. I’m moving. I was given 60 days to vacate, and the wine is definitely coming with me, inside me, probably. Memories and tasting notes are easier to store and transport.**

I love Alvarinho. This Alvarinho received accolades. And yet…

Acrid! Unpleasant lactic smells — think soured butter—and hints of pee on a gooseberry bush that one associates with volatile Sauvignon Blanc. Several hours later it’s still harsh. The faded pineapple fruit is lost in the background, stewy, yeasty and hollow.

The structure of this wine is affected so it tastes mostly like it smells and it coats the mouth without anything resembling an arc. No progression, meaning there is no finish. And there is no middle really either. No body. Well, there is one but it’s all in the same register. Nothing suggests something more than pressed fruit. There seems to be more than one flaw here. What’s worse is there are a lot of additives that can’t play their part: I imagine added yeasts (or lees?) contributing to a metallic edge to make a firm and unshakable aftertaste where the finish should be instead — all in a package that cloys with residual sweetness, sticking to the top of throat unpleasantly. A failed wine. Toucas Alvarinho Vinho Verde 2012 will puzzle me for a while.

Dinner was okay though.

12.5% alc/vol, $19.95