Galactic Wines 'Sarava Loureiro' Vinho Branco 2022

Press 4 Mix/White • April 2024 Direct Press Selection

Miguel Viseu is the fourth generation of winemakers in the Douro, and he grew up helping his father in the cellar. But instead of taking over the family operation he left to pursue a degree in agricultural engineering and then worked at wineries all over the world including Pousse d'Or in Burgundy and Paul Hobbs in Napa. When he returned to Portugal, his passion for biodynamic farming and natural winemaking made him a shoe-in to take over as head winemaker at Aphros in Vinho Verde, one of the earliest biodynamic producers in Portugal. That's still his main gig but he and his wife Leli started making their own wines with purchased fruit in 2018 in their garage that fall under the Galactic label. "We don’t plan to be big producers," he told importer Louis/Dressner in an interview. "We plan to create a lifestyle around the farming and the wine. We’ll touch each bottle, wax them by hand. We don’t want this to be about the money and the stress of running a business. I was born in this and it can get to a level where all the fun gets sucked out of it."

This Loureiro, one of Miguel's favorite white grapes in the VInho Verde region, comes from vines planted about 15 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. "We wanted to make a wine that could be both incredibly fresh and rich," Miguel said. That's a great description, as it has a dangerously delicious combination of lush peach notes with spicy lemongrass and salt. There's three days of skin maceration but it's not an orange wine by any stretch. Fermented and aged in a mix of steel, chestnut barrel, and clay tinaja. Small sulfur addition, around 10ppm, only at bottling. Jonathan Kemp