2019 Vitor Claro Colmeal Dominó ‘Las Vedras’ Tinto

Region: Beira < Alentejo < Portugal Grapes: Alicante Bouchet Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Organic farming, granite soils; partial carbonic fermentation, aged in stainless steel; bottled unfined/unfiltered with minimal added SO2; 12% Winemaker: Vitor Claro Vitor was an up-and-coming chef in Portugal when he got the wine bug from Dirk Niepoort (the guy who pretty much put Portuguese wine on the global map) and decided to try his hands at making the kind of wine he wanted to drink with the food he cooked at his restaurant.  By 2016, he had given up the restaurant to focus full time on wine. He tells a story of his early days, in a lab with another winemaker who was pushing all of the enology “products” (boxes of chemicals + additives) on him.  It hit him that nobody was talking about the grapes at all, and told the guy, “We will do a wine with none of that stuff. You’ll be amazed.”  He did, and we are.  This wine, his Alicante Bouchet from the Las Vedras vineyard, is refreshing, light an