Glassware

A glass decides how much of a Vinho Verde's cool freshness and fine fizz actually reaches the nose. This wine is light. Precisely because of that, it forgives the wrong glass even less than a heavy red does.

For Alvarinho, Loureiro, or one of the classic blends, a slim, slightly tulip-shaped glass with a narrow opening works best. A wide, open bowl lets the chill escape faster, and the fine bubbles of the Agulha - this wine's quiet natural fizz - dissipate too quickly in it as well; a narrow shape, by contrast, holds both together and sends citrus and orange-blossom aromas upward in concentrated form.

When it comes to temperature, you can go colder than with almost any other white wine. Eight to ten degrees Celsius is enough for the simple, high-acid blends. Their alcohol content is often only nine or ten percent, and in a warm room the glass tastes flat within minutes. A pure Alvarinho from Monção and Melgaço, on the other hand, can handle ten to twelve degrees. Its higher alcohol and riper fruit need a bit more warmth to open up.

The red Vinhão is a different story entirely. In the tascas of Minho, it was traditionally not drunk from a stemmed glass at all. It was drunk from a flat clay bowl, poured straight from the barrel, with foam on top. Today a good bottled Vinhão goes into an ordinary red wine glass, but served cooler than other reds: twelve to fifteen degrees is enough. Otherwise its coarse acidity, combined with the tannin, just comes across as aggressive.

Lastly, the pour: less per glass, refilled more often. A Vinho Verde warms up in the glass faster than a full-bodied wine. As it warms, freshness and fizz are the first things to go. A small sip, freshly topped up, brings more of this wine to the tongue than a large glass left standing in the sun for half an hour.