Nortico Portuguese Alvarinho

Tasting notes & discussion 16

Typically $25/bottle from Vinos Atlántico Portugal
Vintage 2020 from Minho, Portugal
Available for AL; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; FL; GA; ID; IL; IN; IA; KS; KY; LA; ME; MD; MA; MI; MN; MO; MT; NE; NV; NH; NJ; NM; NY; NC; ND; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; VT; VA; WA; WV; WI; WY
Sold by participating winery or licensee, fulfilled by Wine Country Connect

About Vinos Atlántico Portugal: “Vinos Atlántico (previously CVA) was founded in 2002 with the purpose of uniting the winemaking heritage of Alberto Orte and Patrick Mata’s families. Both of their families have been producing wine, independently, throughout Spain since the late 1800s.”

Weather Is Someone Else's Problem

TASTING NOTES: “Sustainably grown vines from 1910-2005 on granite soils. Creamy citrus oil, lime, and yellow apple create the foundation, beautifully spiced and detailed with saline mineral and floral underpinnings that carry through an impressive, lingering finish. This is coastal Portugal in liquid form—bright, sophisticated, and utterly captivating.” (AbV 13.5%)

VARIETALS: 100% Alvarinho

BARRELS: Not specified.

PAIRS WITH: N/A

THAT REMINDS ME OF: The azulejos.

There’s a particular madness to decorating your entire country in fragile hand-painted ceramic tiles and then just… leaving them outside. On train stations. On church facades. On the exterior walls of ordinary houses in the rain. Portugal looked at the concept of “weather” and decided it was someone else’s problem. The oldest azulejos date back to the 15th century, introduced by the Moors, and the Portuguese took one look at this imported art form and thought: yes, but bigger. Yes, but everywhere. The name probably comes from the Arabic az-zulayj, meaning “polished stone,” though some people prefer the theory that it comes from azul, the Portuguese word for blue — which itself comes from the Persian lāzhward, the name of a place where they mined lapis lazuli. Etymology is just a long chain of people borrowing beautiful things from each other.

What gets me is that azulejos were never meant to be precious. They were practical — they insulate buildings, they’re easy to clean, they survive the coastal humidity. The art snuck in through the utility, the way it tends to do. By the 18th century, entire building facades were being covered in narrative panels depicting battles, harvests, saints performing miracles. You’d be walking to the market and suddenly there’s a fifteen-foot ceramic scene of the Siege of Ceuta on the side of a pharmacy. Just completely normal. A whole country where the walls have always had something to say.

Who's buying this?

How are you buying your bottles?

If your personality were an azulejo panel on a building, what would it depict?

A coastal scene — I'm drawn to edges where things meet and change

A coastal scene — I'm drawn to edges where things meet and change
A harvest — I find meaning in slow work and things coming to fruition

A harvest — I find meaning in slow work and things coming to fruition
A battle — I've been through enough to fill a pharmacy wall

A battle — I've been through enough to fill a pharmacy wall
Something abstract — I'd rather suggest than explain

Something abstract — I'd rather suggest than explain
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