Xisto Cru branco 2022, Luis Seabra
Region: Douro
Producer: Luis Seabra
Luis Seabra worked for more than 10 years as an oenologist for Dirk Niepoort and finally went his own way in 2012. The name he gives to his wines is indicative of his vision of wine: Xisto (Schist). He makes very pure wines that reflect their terroir. Luis Seabra sets a new standard in the Douro with his pure wines.The Xisto Cru is one of a series of wines that Luis makes that illustrate and express the intensely terroir-oriented style in which he operates. He is a particularly gifted winemaker who sees wine as a means of communication that allows a piece of land to express itself. In this series of wines, he removes all variables except that of the terroir itself, and the resulting brutal expression of the terroir is extraordinary. He works exclusively with spontaneous fermentation, indigenous yeasts and large, tight-grained oak for all the wines in this series.
Rather than a single vineyard, it is a blend of two plots planted in the Cima Corgo sub-region of the Douro between 1920 and 1933. It is conceived as a clear expression of terroir and place. The vines are cultivated in a sustainable manner and vinified using only spontaneous fermentation and indigenous yeasts. In this way, it eliminates any potential variability other than soil type as an expression of terroir.
Vineyards cultivated in a sustainable manner and planted between 1920 and 1933. The soil consists of micaceous schist at an altitude of 650 to 700 m. The vineyards are located in the southern part of the Douro Superior, in the eastern part of the Douro, near the Spanish border. It is a sub-region that experiences extreme highs and lows in terms of temperature, with one of the largest day-night temperature deltas in Portugal.
On the nose this wine offers very tonic and mineral aromas of sour peach, flowers, fresh fennel bulb and savory. On the palate, more peach, citrus zest and fennel, with white pepper and floral tones that complete the finish.This mineral wine goes perfectly with bivalves of all kinds, particularly raw. Oysters, clams, mussels. It also goes perfectly with goat's cheese.
| Volume | 75.0cl |
| Grape Variety | 70% Rabigato, the rest being a blend of Codega (10%), Gouveio (10%) and Viosinho Dozelino Branco (10%). |
| Drinking window | 2024-2030 |
| Alc. | 12.0% |
| Vinification | Spontaneous fermentation in used barrels using the indigenous yeast present on the fruit. |
| Ripening | Aged for 9 months on the lees and then 12 months in used French oak barrels, without batonnage, without malolactic fermentation. |