Quinta de Soalheiro is an familiar name in the Vinho Verde region, having planted their first Alvarinho vines in 1974, and then in 1982 having produced the first Alvarinho wine in Melgaco, according to the winery. The 2006 ALVARINHO “PRIMEIRAS VINHAS” (SOALHEIRO) is a special bottling from those first 1974 vines (“primeiras vinhas”) and a joint venture with Dirk Niepoort. It is a lovely wine, graceful, precise and crisp, yet full of fruit. It has the ability to coat the mouth. It sneaks up on you, showing more substantial than it seems on first taste. It is another in the increasingly long line of impressive bottlings in this region. Drink now-2010.