Muros de Melgaço Alvarinho 2017

The 2017 Alvarinho Muros de Melgaço, in the oversized Moscato-like flute, is an Alvarinho aged for six months in used French oak. It comes in at 13% alcohol. Showing a sweet edge, a tinge of oak, on first taste, this also has a wave of fruit, acidity in support and very little in the way of vanilla. It's a rather exuberant Muros this year but probably not the deepest or the most intense. It still won't disappoint, and it may yet improve. It will age reasonably well, like everything Mendes makes. There were 25,000 bottles produced. - Mark Squires.