#41, 2023 Wine Spectator Top 100

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2022 Adega de Moncao Muralhas de Moncao Vinho Verde 750 ml

Retail: $20

$15 25% off per bottle

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Cool, Crisp White from a Winery on a Hot Streak

Back in 1988, Wine Spectator released their first Top 100 list. Since then, the list has become an iconic piece of wine culture, with the power to turn obscure wines into overnight legends—and to send buyers into a frenzy.

In its 35-year history, no Vinho Verde ever made Spectator’s prestigious roster. Until the 2022 Monção Muralhas de Monção Vinho Verde did it. From a winery called “an icon of the Vinho Verde region,” this is a gorgeous bottling that brims with succulent nectarine and peach fruit—the PERFECT summertime sipper.

It took 65 years for Adega Cooperativa de Monção to achieve that status. Founded in 1958, it’s an association of hundreds of growers who banded their resources together to make the pergola-trained vines in their backyard into something special. Many growers even have gardens under their vines, which need to be trained up high to protect them from moisture and mildew in this rainy corner of Iberia. 

The growers have a lot of help from their terroir: the lauded Monção e Melgaço subregion of Vinho Verde, the birthplace of Alvarinho. Alvarinho—AKA Albariño—forms small, compact, winged clusters here, which are optimal for high-quality wine, making this one of the best of the nine subzones of Vinho Verde. 

There’s nothing more refreshing on a hot day than a cold glass of Vinho Verde to go with a plate of grilled rockfish tacos, and this one dazzled our tasting panel with the way it jumps out of the glass with its energy and verve, boasting perfumes of nectarines, white peach, green plum and wet stones. The freshness on the palate is just gorgeous, with white floral tones and a kiss of sea spray.