With so many new projects cropping up in the sphere of Portuguese wine-making, it’s not easy to stand out and be noticed, so original branding and label design is perhaps even more important than the contents of the bottle when it comes to grabbing the attention of customers.
But of course, we all want that great price/quality ratio that adds up to a bottle of wine that not only pleases the eye but also the palate and the pocket. And so I say hats off to Boina (Portuguese for the caps worn usually by old men).
I have yet to try the red, mainly due to the fact that it is too young for my taste. But if the quality of this white is anything to go by, I expect it to be equally good.
The first vintage from this producer, “Portugal Boutique Wines”, was 2015 and the white currently on the market is the 2016 (€9.50 at Apolónia). Boina may be made by a young producer but the wines come from 90-year-old field blend vines of traditional Douro varieties, grown at at least 500 metres altitude.
Both the white and the red are un-oaked, the idea from producers Nuno Aguiar de Morais Vaz (ex Anselmo Mendes winery) and António Olazabal Ferreira (nephew of Vito Olazabal from Vale Meão) being a pure expression of the terroir.
The white has lovely citric and white fruit notes on the nose, fresh acidity and good volume in the mouth with a long clean finish. This is a new producer to look out for.
