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2024 Anselmo Mendes - Alvarinho Vinho Verde Contacto (750ml)
Anselmo Mendes
SKU 105616

2024 Anselmo Mendes - Alvarinho Vinho Verde Contacto (750ml)

$24.99 - $24.99
$24.99
$24.99 - $24.99
$24.99
Availability:
24 available

Anselmo Mendes was born and raised in Monção, in the heart of Vinho Verde’s Alvarinho country. He trained as an agro-industrial engineer, worked as a consultant winemaker across Portugal, and began making his own Alvarinho in 1998 in Monção e Melgaço. His bone-dry, mineral, still style helped change the reputation of the region. Known as “Mr. Alvarinho,” he is widely credited with elevating Vinho Verde from a light, fizzy wine into a more serious category.

Contacto is made entirely from Alvarinho grown in the sub-region of Monção e Melgaço, on sunny hillsides with granite soils. The name refers to skin contact. The grapes are destemmed and crushed, then left on their skins for a short maceration before pressing. The wine ferments at a controlled, steady temperature in stainless steel, followed by at least four months on fine lees. Contacto was first made in 2008 and has become one of the producer’s signature wines.

The 2024 is pale gold with delicate aromas of white blossom, fresh lime, and wet stone. The palate is dry and fruit-driven, with good body, lively acidity, and a savory, slightly bitter edge typical of Alvarinho. A mineral finish keeps it fresh. Serve chilled with shellfish, grilled fish, rice dishes, or as an aperitif.

91 Points
"The 2024 Contacto Alvarinho is part of a joint venture with the Symington family, but the brand has existed since 2008, and the Symingtons have had 50% of the brand since 2023. The concept here comes from the skin contact, which varies depending on the acidity and the ripeness; in very warm years, they avoid full skin contact because it lowers acidity. Here we're talking 12 hours at 12 degrees Celsius for 70% of the grapes, so it's not at all an "orange" wine. In fact, the color is as pale as the Muros Antigos. The difference here is the soils where the grapes grow—in the Quinta da Torre, the soils are alluvial (still granitic) but with a little more clay (8%) and more resistance to drought. It started quite shy, but the wine is more aromatic and floral; it has more volume and is more concentrated, because of the soils and the skin contact. It comes in at 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.3 and seven grams of acidity—a little of those factors is what happens with the alluvial soils, but the higher pH is because there's more potassium for the grapes and the acidity is also higher; but it's more because of the temperature, which in the Quinta da Torre, a valley, is lower at night than in the slopes from Melgaço, where the grapes from Muros Antigos come from. 360,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2025."
—Luis Gutiérrez-Wine Advocate
Appellation: Vinho Verde
Vintage: 2024
Region: Vinho Verde
Country: Portugal
Bottle Size: 750ml
Producer: Anselmo Mendes
Anselmo Mendes

Anselmo Mendes was born and raised in Monção, in the heart of Vinho Verde’s Alvarinho country. He trained as an agro-industrial engineer, worked as a consultant winemaker across Portugal, and began making his own Alvarinho in 1998 in Monção e Melgaço. His bone-dry, mineral, still style helped change the reputation of the region. Known as “Mr. Alvarinho,” he is widely credited with elevating Vinho Verde from a light, fizzy wine into a more serious category.

Contacto is made entirely from Alvarinho grown in the sub-region of Monção e Melgaço, on sunny hillsides with granite soils. The name refers to skin contact. The grapes are destemmed and crushed, then left on their skins for a short maceration before pressing. The wine ferments at a controlled, steady temperature in stainless steel, followed by at least four months on fine lees. Contacto was first made in 2008 and has become one of the producer’s signature wines.

The 2024 is pale gold with delicate aromas of white blossom, fresh lime, and wet stone. The palate is dry and fruit-driven, with good body, lively acidity, and a savory, slightly bitter edge typical of Alvarinho. A mineral finish keeps it fresh. Serve chilled with shellfish, grilled fish, rice dishes, or as an aperitif.

91 Points
"The 2024 Contacto Alvarinho is part of a joint venture with the Symington family, but the brand has existed since 2008, and the Symingtons have had 50% of the brand since 2023. The concept here comes from the skin contact, which varies depending on the acidity and the ripeness; in very warm years, they avoid full skin contact because it lowers acidity. Here we're talking 12 hours at 12 degrees Celsius for 70% of the grapes, so it's not at all an "orange" wine. In fact, the color is as pale as the Muros Antigos. The difference here is the soils where the grapes grow—in the Quinta da Torre, the soils are alluvial (still granitic) but with a little more clay (8%) and more resistance to drought. It started quite shy, but the wine is more aromatic and floral; it has more volume and is more concentrated, because of the soils and the skin contact. It comes in at 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.3 and seven grams of acidity—a little of those factors is what happens with the alluvial soils, but the higher pH is because there's more potassium for the grapes and the acidity is also higher; but it's more because of the temperature, which in the Quinta da Torre, a valley, is lower at night than in the slopes from Melgaço, where the grapes from Muros Antigos come from. 360,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2025."
—Luis Gutiérrez-Wine Advocate
Appellation: Vinho Verde
Vintage: 2024
Region: Vinho Verde
Country: Portugal
Bottle Size: 750ml
Producer: Anselmo Mendes