Ratings:
92
Wine & Spirits
A field blend of seven local Portuguese white varieties, this “mechanical orange” is António Maçanita’s riff on a skin-contact white. He presses the grapes, leaving them with about 15 percent of the juice, then lets those grapes rest for a week before pressing them again—using only the juice from the second pressing for this wine. It ferments with ambient yeasts in stainless steel, without the addition of sulfur until fermentation is complete. Open a bottle and you’ll find that dried apricot and blond caramel are the calmer side of this wild, microbial party in a glass: tannic and volatile and a bit crazy-extreme, a radical, deeply orange wine with kombucha notes and a lot of flavor dimension. Pour it with mushroom-and-kimchi toast, or go for something meaty.
90 Mark Squires - Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 a Laranja Mecânica is basically an orange wine, although classified as a "curtimenta," referencing skin contact with the juice. It is a field blend of typical grapes (like Arinto, Roupeiro, Verdelho, Antão Vaz, Alicante Branco and Fernão Pires) from vines ranging from 25 to 50 years in age. It comes in at 12.5% alcohol. A rather gentle and understated orange wine, this is beautifully balanced this year. Then, it adds dried peaches and apricots on the finish. It's still a bit different and not for everyone, not exactly your typical white, but it doesn't go overboard in power or eccentricity. It's well done this year, but it is certainly something you will need to drink with a food pairing. It should hold reasonably well, but I'd drink this on the younger side, no matter how longer it theoretically lasts. There were 8,395 bottles produced.
90 Roger Voss - Wine Enthusiast
The name of the wine means clockwork orange, the producer's interpretation of an orange wine, rather than a movie. With a golden color and a texture that derives from long maceration of the grape skins, the wine is about structure as well as perfumed white and yellow fruits.
Product Description:
"Honey orange in color with a very exuberant nose, showing notes of candied orange and quince. The wine has a lot of texture on the palate but finishes with great freshness.
Fitapreta is António Maçanita’s estate near the ancient Roman city of Evora, located in the rolling hills of Alentejo. Since its inception in 2004, Fitapreta has pushed the boundaries of what fine winemaking can be in this region, and over the last two decades, the estate has become a benchmark for the New Portugal, earning Antonio international accolades like Winemaker of the Year, Most Unique Winemaker, and Winemaker of the Generation. Maçanita works only with indigenous varieties and showcases his estate’s terroir through exacting work: farming organically without irrigation, harvesting by hand at night, deliberate bunch sorting in the winery, and native yeast fermentation. Through his commitment to these principles, he can craft wines that represent sunny Alentejo, but which have a balance and freshness unmatched by others in the region. Maçanita finds equilibrium between tradition and modernity, and his constant exploration of vineyards has enabled him to show off a truly deep understanding of Alentejano terroir, present and past. Whether on his original estate vineyard or in his Chão dos Eremitas site, his wines always contain a through-line of elegance and purity. The broad assortment of wine styles available from Fitapreta is a testament to Antonio’s intellect, curiosity, playfulness, and rigorous attention to detail. Fitapreta has something for everyone! A Laranja Mecânica means “a mechanical orange,” and is a playful reference to Antonio’s winemaking process, which differs from the traditional method for making orange wine because he introduces a press—the “machine.” -Importer. Vegan
