The Azal variety is a quality variety grown in the Vinho Verde region. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was the main variety for the production of white wine in the region.

The Raza’ unique terroir, created by the magnificent exposure to the sun, the soil with granitic origins with schist and clayey areas and the rigorous climate, very cold and rainy in the winter and very hot and dry in the summer, favours late-maturing varieties such as the Azal (white).

It is a productive variety with a long cycle, early in bud break and late in maturation. The bunches are medium in size, very compact and heavy, and their berries have a greenish colour even at the end of maturation. It reaches its maximum quality level when planted in dry, well-exposed soils.

The Azal variety produces wines with a citrus colour, aromas of lime, lemon, sometimes grapefruit and green apple. The taste is fruity with citrus and mineral notes. It has an excellent freshness.

At Quinta da Raza, the Azal variety is one of the most planted and is used in three of our wines, the QUINTA DA RAZA FAMILY COLLECTION Nº1,  DOM DIOGO AZAL and RAZA.

Being a very fresh variety, one might think that it only adapts to young wines, but in the case of the FAMILY COLLECTION Nº1  the Azal wine used was fermented in stainless steel and then aged in French oak for 12 months. It was a wine with a high alcohol content for the average of the variety, but with a very present acidity that served as a support for the blend with Alvarinho and Avesso. It is a winter white produced with one of the freshest grape varieties in the country

It is in our most emblematic Azal, the DOM DIOGO AZAL, that the variety expresses all its typicality. The aromas of lemon, green apple and sometimes lemongrass and a unique freshness that ends in a succulent way, give this wine a unique character that quickly transports us to a hot summer day.

In a blend, with Arinto and Trajadura, as it is in RAZA, the variety gives freshness and uniqueness to a wine that intends to demonstrate the most typical way of producing Vinho Verde in which the varieties were blended with each other and the result was the sum of the best features of each one.

Alone or in a blend, Azal wine deserves to be discovered and appreciated in whatever style suits you best.