Phaunus Amphora Palhete Red 2022

A blend of native Loureiro white grapes and Vinhão red grapes, dry-fermented with ambient yeast in a clay amphora lined with beeswax. It’s a little funky at first, with a hint of saline herbs complementing its aroma of dried rose petals and potpourri. The pale red robe hints at cranberries and pomegranate, but a smoky flesh brings it down to earth. Clay, almost, reflecting the vessel in which it was born, as if the wine were in a deep conversation between fruit and fire, earth and sea.