Wine region
Alentejo
Alentejo in southern Portugal: cork oaks, sun and warm, fruity reds from Aragonez and Trincadeira, plus talha wines made in clay vessels.
- Vineyard area
- a little over 20,000 hectares on almost a third of the country
- Main grapes
- red: Aragonez, Trincadeira, Alicante Bouschet, Alfrocheiro; white: Antão Vaz, Arinto, Roupeiro, Fernão Pires
- Climate and soils
- Mediterranean, hot and dry: summers regularly up to 40 °C; granite, schist, limestone, clay
- Appellations
- Alentejo DOC with eight sub-zones; Vinho Regional Alentejano for the whole region
- Speciality
- cork: Portugal supplies about half of world production; Vinho de Talha from clay vessels
Alentejo, whose name means “beyond the Tagus”, takes up almost a third of Portugal and is sparsely populated. Broad plains of wheat, olive groves and open cork oak woodland, the montados, shape the landscape. The climate is Mediterranean, with hot, dry summers in which temperatures regularly reach 40 °C, and mild, wet winters. About half of the world’s cork harvest comes from Portugal, and Alentejo is its most important growing area; the bark of the cork oak is stripped about every nine years without killing the tree.
The vines cover a little over 20,000 hectares on granite, schist, limestone, clay and gravel. The whole region carries the Vinho Regional Alentejano indication, and eight sub-zones may use the Alentejo DOC: Portalegre, Borba, Redondo, Évora, Reguengos, Granja-Amareleja, Vidigueira and Moura. The first DOCs were regulated in 1988, and the regional commission, the CVRA, was set up in 1989. Portalegre, the northernmost sub-zone, lies at the foot of the Serra de São Mamede, the highest range south of the Tagus.
The reds that made Alentejo’s name are warm, soft and fruity. Aragonez is Alentejo’s name for Tempranillo; Trincadeira, a long-established variety of the region, gives full wines with blackberry, herbs and flowers and needs dry, hot sites because it is prone to rot. Alicante Bouschet, crossed in France in 1866 by Henri Bouschet from Petit Bouschet and Grenache and red-fleshed (a teinturier), has become a speciality of Alentejo, where it has grown since the late 19th century, and gives dense, very dark wines. Among the whites, Antão Vaz (powerful, with tropical fruit and tangerine peel), Arinto (acidity, citrus) and Roupeiro (citrus aromas, for early drinking) matter, and are often blended together.
A speciality is Vinho de Talha. In large clay vessels, the talhas, which hold up to 2,000 litres, the grapes ferment with skins and stems using a technique that goes back to the Romans and has survived in Alentejo. The inside of the vessels is sealed with pine resin (pez); fermentation lasts eight to fifteen days, and the cap is pushed down by hand several times a day. Traditionally the talhas are opened on St Martin’s Day, 11 November. Vidigueira, Vila de Frades and Cuba are the best-known places.
What to drink: Alentejo reds with stews, pork or lamb and sheep’s cheese; the whites with fish and shellfish; talha wines with rustic dishes of ham and cheese.