Description

Beautiful golden color. Very intense and complex nose with petrol, quince and chalky silex notes. On the palate, it shows great freshness, amazing density and texture with balanced and persistent mouthfeel. A very long aftertaste with excellent acidity and harmony.

A very limited production, only 1840 bottles were produced in the year.

A new and limited release from Quinta de Chocapalha: 'Antigo' comes from old Arinto vines (aged over 30 years) and exposed to the north. Aiming to prove the versatility of Arinto, the most planted variety on the farm's 45 hectares and the family's greatest passion. “It shows the identity of Quinta de Chocapalha”, emphasizes the winemaker Sandra Tavares da Silva.

This white wine fermented for 28 days at low temperatures with skin maceration, and then aged in used French oak barrels for 24 months in contact with fine lees. Finally, it spent 12 months in the bottle. The result is a wine golden in colour, with an intense and complex nose, marked by notes of petroleum, quince and flint. In the mouth, it is a nectar of enormous freshness and density, with balanced and persistent tannins and a very long finish, with structured acidity.

"Pale gold. Smells richer, spicier and broader than the straight Chocapalha Arinto 2022 and 2021 just tasted, with the beginning of that bottle-aged aroma that is hard to describe, something oily and woody (not oaky) yet more perfumed than that. Golden, spicy and with a suggestion of riper fruit, veering away from citrus to ripe pear, even apricot. On the palate, this feels bigger and broader and more tannic than the 'normal' Arinto and the high acidity, well-integrated, does not show as much as you might expect, the freshness coming as much from the tannins as from the acidity. Powerful, deep and sour-fresh on the finish. An intense wine that demands food, and has the capacity to age. Like so many of the Chocapalha wines, this seems much younger than its years. First impression was breadth and texture, finishing impression is the mouth-watering acidity, the precision, the sheer class. The tannins are relatively gentle for a skin-fermented wine. This is the first commercial vintage of a wine that Sandra Tavares has wanted to make for some time and I very much hope she continues to make it because the skin-fermented style seems perfectly suited to Arinto from Lisboa. So much presence and intensity with such low alcohol. A magic trick or, more likely, great vineyards and attentive winemaking. Drink 2024 - 2032.
17.5/20 points.
Julia Harding, Jancis Robinson Purple Pages (March 2024)