NV Quinta do Vallado White

[Alex Bridgeman]

Quinta do Vallado heard that we were organising some White Port & Tonic tastings in London and the home counties in the summer of 2025 and offered to send us a couple of bottles of their recently bottled standard Porto Branco. One thing I really like about the Vallado White is that the bottling date is put on the back label.

The Vallado white went down a storm with our tasters, often coming out as the most preferred white for blending with (standard Schweppes) tonic. The wine is roughly 3 years old on average and has an attractive pale yellow appearance. A tasting sample taken before the wine was mixed with tonic revealed the wine to have an attractive fruity nose of lemon and grapefruit, with interesting complexity of citrus oil and coriander. The wine is nicely balanced on the palate, with a sweet and honeyed core fighting with the acidity in the wine - but with the honey winning through the tension. Delicate yet flavoursome, the extra sweetness this wine had compared to many of the other white Ports used for the tastings was a hit with the audience. A lovely, tingling white pepper edge to the honey and grapefruit finish was very pleasing. This is a great, versatile bottle which can be drunk unmixed with considerable pleasure or mixed with tonic and served over ice to deliver a long, refreshing and satisfying summer drink. 87/100. Tasted August 2025.