“Luis Seabra’s style is clean, precise and elegant - wines that reflect their birthplace, the soils and varieties and the year when the grapes grew. Superb wines.” - The Wine Advocate

When taking a bottle of wine to a dinner party, there’s a certain amount of pressure when you are a wine merchant (as we occasionally pretend to be) to choose something that’s both delicious and original. We might feel like a flinty Chablis, but that would display a woeful lack of imagination, so we flick through our mental Rolodex of groovy alternatives and this Portuguese white often springs to mind first.

It’s very much a ‘mineral-driven’ white, informed by the schist (xisto) soil on which the vines grow, with a rocky undertow to the notes of lime cream, oyster shell and white flowers. It’s a blend of mostly Rabigato with 20% Arinto and 5% each Gouveio and Codega from 35- to 60-year-old vines, fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged in used French oak barrels, with 30% of the wine fermented and aged in stainless steel to retain its edgy freshness. 12.5% alc. Drink now-2029.

Press review:

The Wine Advocate: “The white 2024 Xisto Ilimitado Branco was produced with 70% Rabigato, 20% Arinto and 5% each Gouveio and Códega from different plots in the zone of Mêda on mica and schist soils at 500 to 700 metres above sea level. The full clusters were pressed, the juice let to settle and then fermented with indigenous yeasts and without temperature control. The wine matured with full lees in 228- and 500-litre barrels and 30% in stainless steel. It didn't have any bâtonnage and went through full malolactic fermentation. It follows the path of freshness of the 2023, clean and precise, with a serious palate with a stony sensation. It has contained ripeness, 12.5% alcohol, 5.3 grams of acidity and a balanced mouthfeel with very good freshness and acidity. Drink now-2030.” 92 points