2013 Adega da Cartuxa Pêra-Manca Branco

The 2013 Branco Pera-Manca is a blend of Antão Vaz (70%) and Arinto (30%), aged in a mixture of stainless steel (one-third) and French barriques (two-thirds) for 12 months (with the barrels being a 60/40 mixture of new and second-use). The oak shows a bit too much now, but that should get better. It was not even released when tasted this summer, but should be by the time this review appears. This still should have plenty of time to pull in some oak. The rest is quite lovely. Very fresh for an oak-aged wine, it shows elegance and focus, along with gentle persistence on the finish. It could use a bit of settle-down time. Come back in a year if you can. Regarding aging, my drinking windows on this have been conservative, which is always my preference, but they should really be expanded a bit. The wines can often do better and the winemaker says they can do 20 years. At that point, I once again must retreat to conservatism to some extent and leave a little wiggle room, noting that there are greatly differing opinions on aged whites and differing storage conditions, too. Let's just say for the moment that this should have plenty of time to pull in some wood and there is no rush. At some point, we'll see where we are when we get there.