Bojo do Luar Pet Nat Ora Bolas Red Pet-Nat Sparkling 2024 750mL

PORTUGAL : VINHO VERDE

BIODYNAMIC : Vinhão, Arinto, Alvarelhão

LIGHT-BODIED, TART CHERRY, CRANBERRY, LEMON PEEL, WILD HERBS, NO OAK

Sparkling red is the category most American drinkers write off on sight. Vinho Verde has been making it seriously for generations — Vinhão, drunk young and cold from ceramic bowls in Minho long before anyone thought to call it a chillable red.

Bojo do Luar is a joint project between New York importer Savio Soares and Portuguese grower António Sousa, working out of century-old clay talhas bought from a shuttered winery on the Spanish border. Ground chestnut flower goes into the must as a natural stabilizer, a technique learned from biodynamic neighbor Fernando Paiva, who stopped using sulfur altogether in 2017.

The clever part is the sugar. Most pét-nat is a timing gamble — bottled mid-ferment and left to hope — but here twenty percent of the Arinto ferments cold in steel for 27 days, holds onto 17 g/L of residual sugar, and gets blended into the red at bottling to finish the job. Unfiltered, undisgorged, sediment left in.

PAIRINGS :