Pioneiro, a wine produced by Portuguese winemaker Venâncio da Costa Lima, has been elected as the best bargain wine of 2021 by a Washington Post wine columnist.
Costing $12 in the USA (and an even more impressive €3.99 in Portugal), the wine was hailed for its quality-price ratio.
“Portugal should no longer surprise us with its value wines. And yet, this one gobsmacked me with the complexity it offers for this price,” wrote Washington Post’s David McIntyre.
“Boysenberry, blueberry, tobacco leaf and autumn leaves seemed to swirl in my glass, even on the first night. More impressively, the flavors developed and became increasingly intertwined over the next several days,” he added.
While the wine comes from Setúbal, just south of Lisbon, it made McIntyre “think of an unfortified port.
“It’s probably no secret to readers of this column that I love port. This wine would make a great case purchase to be your house red for the first months of 2022,” he added.
In Portugal, the wine is sold exclusively directly by the winemaker or at Intermarché supermarkets.
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