Quinta do Infantado Douro Junior Palhete 2023

75% native red varieties/25% white varieties. From a single hectare of 40-year-old vines, a field blend of red and white varieties, planted at almost 2000 feet in elevation on a schistous, north-facing hillside in the Douro. The bunches are co-harvested by hand and partly destemmed. The mix of berries and whole clusters macerates just long enough to take on a clear, pale red color. Fermentation is spontaneous with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel tank, where the wine is also aged on its fine lees for 11 months, followed by a year in bottle. Having little exposure to air, the wine has a natural, very gentle, desirable spritz to it just upon opening. “Palhete” is Portuguese for the British term “claret” (from the French “clairet” originally), historically applied to the very pale, not-quite-red wines of Bordeaux wines way back in the 14th-15th centuries (only later did claret come to indicate the bigger, truly red, more modern style of Bordeaux red). In the bottle, Palhete references this fresh, very light style of wine, in Portugal’s case achieved through a co-fermentation and short maceration of white and red varieties.