$19.99 on 6+ (use code: 6saves2)

92 points Wine Advocate
Drink Date: 2025 - 2030
They made a "skin contact" Loureiro for the first time in 2024. The 2024 Contacto Loureiro is also a joint venture with the Symington family, along with the Alvarinho. It comes from a single estate, Quinta da Ferreira in Ponte de Lima, at 200 meters above sea level, with a slope and more inland, in the valley, some 25 kilometers from the sea, with good drainage, where they make their best Loureiro wines. Here, we're also talking about very brief skin contact, short and cool (12 hours at 12 degrees Celsius), which has a subtle effect on the wine, but there's more intensity and complexity here. 25,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in January 2025.

I had a fantastic hour and a half with Anselmo Mendes between Porto and his Quinta da Torre in Melgaço, and I learned so much about Vinho Verde, Alvarinho and Loureiro that I couldn't believe it.

In 2023, they harvested at the end of August, but in 2024, they started the Alvarinho 15 days later, from mid-September, which makes a big difference, a slow ripening of the grapes in 2024. The difference was the temperature difference between day and night in September, which provoked a longer cycle, which means more development of aromas and flavors in the grapes. Published: Mar 27, 2025 Reviewed by: Luis Gutiérrez

From the Lima sub-region, Contacto Loureiro represents balance and harmony. The region’s terroir provides, in addition to its notorious freshness, the aromatic exuberance characteristic of the Loureiro grape variety. Throughout the Lima valley, there are mid-slope vineyards that give the wine an acidity marked by the salinity coming from the Atlantic. In this region we find granite soils and poor organic matter.