Quinta do Infantado 2023 Palhete Douro

From João's new Infantado Junior project, this is an exciting and exuberant wine that is a blend of 75% native red varieties and 25% white varieties from a single hectare of 40-year-old vines. 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. "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 way back in the 14th-15th centuries. 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. 170-case production.