Conceito Branco 2016 | Conceito (Rita Marques)

This is a fruity wine, crisp with citrus acidity and bright with light minerality and zest. It is a refreshing wine with an attractive sliced apple and melon aftertaste. Drink this lively wine now.

 The 2016 Estate Branco is probably the best white yet made here and a good testament to how fine 2015 is for Brancos. It is a field blend aged for ten months in used French oak barrels (second, third and fourth usage).

It starts with finesse, but it has the intensity and freshness to be enlivening, too. Pointed and focused, it often seems like a fine white Burgundy. It finishes with steel rather than wood on the finish. This is not the deepest ever Branco--if you're looking for fat, rich and sweet, that's never the style here--but it is simply breathtaking in its freshness and crispness on the finish.

Conceito is located in the Portuguese town of Vila Nova de Foz Côa. A family-owned winery that was founded in the 1940s with 86 hectares. Rita Ferreira Marqués, a young winemaker who has studied in, Bordeaux, New Zealand, South Africa, and California leads this project with the aim of producing quality wines by fusing tradition with innovation.