Luis Pato Maria Gomes Metodo Antigo NV

This sparkler is a curious and wonderful thing. It is made using an ancient 'Rural' Method in which, unusually, the wine only undergoes fermentation once, using only naturally occurring sugars.

If you are slightly bored and confused by this and care not for the methods used, let us tell you that it is made by Luis Pato, the Baron of the Bairrada and one of the most renowned producers in Portugal, who calls it his 'take on Prosecco'.

If you're now muttering 'meh' at your screen because you don't give a monkeys about famous producers, let us simply say that it is an elegant and focused wine with generous mousse and aromas of white flowers and citrus. Does that do it?

For over 30 years, Luís Pato has been at the forefront of the finest winemakers in Portugal's historic Bairrad region. He took over from his father a little over 30 years ago, and now has 60 ha of indigenous varieties, in the historic wine region of Bairrada, which lies close to the Atlantic coast south of Porto. Bairrada makes more of Portugal’s sparkling wines than anywhere else and it is often drunk locally with suckling pig, for which the region is also renowned.

Luís works to combine the best of local grape varieties with the region's best vineyard sites. He trained as a chemical engineer, which has given him a great knowledge of molecular structure in grapes, and subsequently wines. After taking over the reins at his father's winery, he experimented with everything from the use of stems to the use of different woods for ageing, at a time when the region was very set in its ways.

"Metodo Antigo is the method of making sparkling wine with a single fermentation. The oldest process in making the sparkling wine was not, contrary to popular opinion, the ‘Classic’ Champenoise Method, but the ‘Rural Method’ or the Old Method (in direct translation from the French). The reason it was popular is related to the existence of a stopper - the cork stopper - which is produced from the cork tree that exists only in the Mediterranean climate. The Old Method uses only one fermentation and not two, as in the Classic one. The grapes for its preparation must have sugar content as a white and not as a sparkling, because it has NO sugar added later. All the sugar used in the process is therefore natural, being a product of the grapes themselves. Initially, the must is fermented in stainless steel vats. Fermentation continues in the bottle, in order to create gas with a pressure equivalent to that of the Classic Method. The final product displays the fermentation flavours."

Made with 100% Maria Gomes grapes, this is an elegant and focused wine with generous mousse and aromas of white flowers and citrus.