Reserva Branco

Poças - founded 1918 by Manoel Domingues Poças Júnior and still wholly family-owned into the fourth generation, one of the few Port houses that can say so - has bottled DOC Douro still wines since 1990. The Reserva Branco comes from Quinta de Vale de Cavalos in Numão, Vila Nova de Foz Côa (the label prints the village), in the Douro Superior: roughly 440-510 m up, on soils the producer describes as a transition between schist and granite, vines 20-40 years old, hand-picked.

The 2021 is 40% Arinto and 60% old-vine field blend - the producer's tech sheet leaves the field-blend varieties unnamed, and the label shorthands them as "Códega". Varieties are vinified separately, fermented in barrel, then aged 10 months in new 300 l oak with bâtonnage on the fine lees. Bottled 2022.

2021 was one of the coolest recent Douro cycles - no heat waves, slow ripening, cold nights - and the sheet's numbers wear it: 11.8% alcohol (the label rounds to 12), total acidity 7.1 g/l, pH 3.10.