Bojo do Luar Vinho Branco, ‘Doralice’ 2021 Bojo do Luar

Farming : Organic | Biodynamic

 

Winemaking : Hand-Picked Grapes | Native Yeast Fermentation | Unfined | Unfiltered | Vegan

 

Region : Vinho Verde, Portugal

 

Grape : Loureiro

 

Alcohol by Volume : 11%

Notes:

The Bojo do Luar project came to life during a trip Savio Soares (Importer) made to the Vinho Verde region. Here he met Fernando Paiva, a biodynamic producer who has been experimenting with adding ground chestnut flowers to the grapes and must before fermentation began. Meanwhile he’s halted using SO2 altogether since 2017.

Fernando is a regional reference for non-interventionist winemaking. He was the first Portuguese producer to acquire the DEMETER certification and through him Savio met another producer, Antonio Sousa, who practiced biodynamic viticulture, but still used traditional and conventional winemaking methods in the cellar. Savio was undeterred and saw this as an opportunity: to use the traditional autochthonous varietals of Northern Portugal, and apply his knowledge and experience of many decades working with French producers, mainly in Burgundy and Loire.

With Antonio’s winemaking experience and openness to experiment using a non-intervention approach in the cellar, the Bojo do Luar wines started to take shape.

The grapes were destemmed and moved into stainless steel tanks with the addition of 1kg of ground chestnut flowers for each 1000L. The fermentation started spontaneously after four days and continued for two weeks. Skin-contact maceration lasted for six weeks. The malolactic fermentation occurred in January ’22 and the wine was bottled, unfiltered.

Flowers impart a touch of bitters to this very juicy orange. Tropical fruit, ripe melons, and citrus peels flavor notes, with a light tannic structure on finish.