After my second vaccine shot at the Gloucester County megasite, I stopped in to see my friend Andrea at Super Buy Rite in West Deptford. Andrea is a Spain/Portugal wine specialist with a fantastic palate. I was looking for some simple Vinho Verde to consume during the week, but instead, she pointed out a couple bottles of Vinho Verde I had not tried before from Aphros Winery in Portugal. Aphros Winery is led by Vasco Croft, a pioneer in biodynamic winemaking in Portugal.

The 2019 Phaunus Pet Nat Blanco is a sparkling Vinho Verde from Arphos Winery, comprised of 70% Loureiro and 30% Arinto. The bottle has a simple bottle cap; no cork or cage.  On the nose, green apples and bread; on the palate, green apples, grapefruit, and some creamy yeastiness and soft bubbles.  The wine is light and refreshing, even though, at 11% alcohol, it clocks in at the high end of the 8.5%-11% range for Vinho Verde. $25 from Super Buy Rite in Deptford or $24 online at Wine Library. They also do a Rosé version that gets rave reviews from my friend Lisa.

You may have heard or read the term “Pet Nat” on a wine label. What does it mean? Pet Nat is short for “pétillant naturel,” meaning “sparkling natural” in French.  This method of fermentation involves bottling the wine while it is still fermenting, while yeast is still converting sugars in the grape juice into molecules that make up alcohol, trapping the byproduct CO2 in the bottle. The bubbles in sparkling wine are trapped CO2. There is only a single fermentation in the Pet Nat process, without disgorgement and adding of dosage as with Champagne.

The other bottle I picked up is an orange Vinho Verde: the 2019 Phaunus Loureiro.  This wine is 100% Loureiro. The grapes are crushed and destemmed in a non-electric press, and then fermented on their skins (which imparts more color and body than usual in white wines, thus an “orange” wine) in clay amphora lined with beeswax. The wine is then aged sur lies (on the dead yeast) for seven months, a method which adds more body and creaminess. In the glass, the wine is partly cloudy with an orange tint. On the nose, funk, honey, apricot, and crushed stone aromas. On the palate, apricot, minerality, and some salinity, reminiscent of Dogfish Head’s SeaQuench, a session sour beer. 11% alcohol.  $25 at Super Buy Rite and $24 online at Wine Library.

I’ll be going back to pick up the Rosé and the red wine version of the Phaunus lineup. Saúde!