Two Top 100 Wineries Join Forces - Wine & Spirits Magazine Two Top 100 Wineries Join Forces

Wine News

Two Top 100 Wineries Join Forces

by Joshua Greene • June 15, 2023

Rupert Symington, Anselmo Mendes and Johnny Symington in Vila Nova de Gaia. (Photo courtesy of Prats & Symington)

The Symington Family and Anselmo Mendes have announced a partnership in Vinho Verde’s northern district of Monção e Melgaço. The Symington Family estate holdings in the Douro include properties for Graham’s, Dow’s, Quinta da Vesuvio and Prats + Symington, all W&S Top 100 award-winning wineries. They have been expanding their estate vineyards to the Alentejo and now Vinho Verde, with the acquisition of the Casa de Rodas, a 68-acre vineyard surrounding a historic manor house. Anselmo Mendes will be making the wine. Born in Monção, Mendes has built a formidable winemaking reputation in Portugal, now largely focused on the estate vineyards he assembled in Vinho Verde, for wines he bottles under his own name. His Contacto, grown in pebbly granitic soils close to the Minho River, amplifies saturated fruit flavors and earthy details through a short maceration on the skins. It is consistently among our top-scoring alvarinhos, and it now will be its own brand under the partnership with the Symington Family.

The Casa de Rodas in Monção, home base for the new partnership.

Joshua Greene

Joshua Greene is the editor and publisher of Wine & Spirits magazine.

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TAGS Vinho Verde Wine News

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After graduating with a degree in journalism from the Universidad de Chile in Santiago, Patricio Tapia attended Bordeaux University in France, where he studied for a diploma in wine tasting and winemaking. Since then, he has visited wine regions around the world and authored several books, including his annual Descorchados, a Chilean wine guide; The Wines of Colchagua Valley; TodoVino and Wines for Great Occasions. Tapia is also the South American correspondent for The Oxford Companion to Wine, The World Atlas of Wine and Oz Clarke’s Pocket Wine Book. For the past three years, he’s been a host on the El Gourmet channel in South America. At Wine & Spirits, Tapia is the critic for the wines of Argentina, Chile and Spain, and regularly contributes articles on these regions.