Boozy McGuzzles

BOOZE TYPE: Wine
PRICE: $7.00 from FreshDirect
RATING: A

Discovering vinho verde was basically what kicked me over into being a serious wine drinker. Sometime last summer, I stumbled into the much-spoken-of Astor Center, and saw they had a display of Portuguese wines. Vinho Verde, they were called. “Green wine?!” I thought, and bought the one in a green glass bottle, with a vague hope the liquid inside would actually be green. It was not, but it was delicious.

Here is your required spiel behind vinho verde: it is called “green wine” because they are extremely young wines, aged only a year or less. The word “verde” is pronounced as only one syllable, because this is Portuguese, not Spanish.

I freaking love vinho verde wines. There is no better summer wine. They are across the board light, crisp, and delicious, perfect for a hot summer night. You have to seriously try to find one that costs more than $10. The average price on bottles I have had—bottles of wine that was seriously good— is about $6. Portuguese wines in particular seem to go for pretty cheap. I believe I have read that this is because Portuguese wines (other than port) don’t yet have the importing clout in America yet. So take advantage of this while you can, before people catch on to this fantastic secret.

Ouro Verde is my favorite of all of the many, many vinho verdes I have had, and it makes me sad that I can only find it through the delivery service that brings me my groceries (news flash: living in New York City is incredibly awesome). It is bright and crisp on the tongue, with very clear citrus notes, and just enough sweetness to make me happy. This wine is just slightly effervescent… not enough to be called a true sparkling wine, but with enough bubbles to feel fantastic when going across your tongue. Vinho verdes are lower alcohol wines, this one in particular being only 9.5% alcohol, so you can comfortably drink it and get a pleasing buzz, instead of totally knackered.

It’s not summer weather yet here in NYC at all, and thank God for that, but when it is, I will go back to drinking nothing but these perfections of white, the vinho verdes.

BUY IT AGAIN: Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.