Cheap Wine and Girl Scout Cookies

If you've been around me for any length of time since September, I've mentioned my trip to Portugal—either in brief or ad nauseum. You should go there. If not for the ever-improving wines being made there, then for the sweetest, freshest fish you'll ever taste.

While I was there, I tried to find a wine that is a guilty pleasure for me. The wine is Vinho Verde, which is the region and the name of its wine made from alvarinho grapes. Vinho Verde is great, especially in the warmer months. It has bright, lime-like acidity; it's very low in alcohol (usually around 9 percent); and it typically has a refreshingly light spritz. Even better it retails for the same price as case of Black Label beer back in the day, which is to say cheap.

I traveled from Lisbon to Porto to Faro and numerous villages in between searching for this simple wine (although I never did make it up to Vinho Verde, in the far north). I can't say I was completely disappointed because Vinho Verde was poured in abundance at many of the meals I sat down for. But this was not my Vinho Verde, which means green wine in Portuguese — not for its color, but for its youthful, refreshing nature.

The wines I had throughout my Iberian jaunt had a lot more in common with the rich, mineral-laden albariños made in the Rias Baixas region of neighboring Spain. They were not a disappointment, but they were not cheap either (nothing under $25).

Recently, I cracked open a screw-top bottle of Vinho Verde at home. Ahh! The simple pleasures of life. It not only quenched my thirst with its 7Up-like qualities, but I thoroughly enjoyed it with my salad slathered with Paul Newman's sesame-ginger dressing and later with a couple of frozen Girl Scout Tagalong cookies. ... I'm a sucker for guilty pleasures.

• $9

• Two thumbs up

• Fun floral and citrus aromas. Bright lemon-lime acidity was enhanced by its subtle effervescence. A super partner for everything from fried shrimp to tuna tartare.

(Wines are rated on a scale ranging up from thumbs down, one thumb mostly up, one thumb up, two thumbs up, two thumbs way up and Golden Thumb Award. Prices are suggested retail prices as provided by the winery, one of its agents, a local distributor or retailer.)