Portugal Wine & Food

The Wines of Alentejo

As a wine-producing country, one of Portugal’s great strengths is its diversity. At one extreme lie the fresh, light, zippy Vinho Verde wines from the damp, green, northern Minho, and at the other there are the rich, concentrated red wines from the hot Alentejo in the south, with a whole spectrum of flavours in between. The Alentejo is where Portugal’s climate finally escapes the Atlantic influence, and the scenery changes to large, gently undulating plains that experience baking hot summers and cold winters more typical of continental weather systems. Think of it as Portugal’s ‘new world’, with the potential to make extrovert, ripe wines with a taste of the sun about them. This is the least populated of Portugal’s regions, and instead of the smallholdings that typify the agricultural landscape elsewhere, the Alentejo has many large estates. Referred to as the ‘bread basket’ of Portugal, wheat is the most important crop here, with the poorer soils being reserved for olive trees, cork oaks and vineyards. If you want to locate the Alentejo on a map of Portugal, it's inland and down a bit from Lisbon, touching the Spanish border on the east and the Algarve is at its south end.

Aside from the many tourist attractions in the region (such as the towns of Evora, Borba and Estremoz), it is wine that is currently putting the Alentejo region on the map, and more specifically, its red wines. There are two distinct styles of Alentejo red. First, there is what can loosely be termed the traditional style. These often combine earthy, herby, undergrowth-like savoury flavours and aromas with the fruit. Traditional Alentejo wines are often complex and reasonably age worthy. Then there is the modern style, perhaps best demonstrated by the wines of Esporão, João Portugal Ramos or Sogrape’s new Alentejo Reserva. These wines show lots of intense fruit, with a richness that is quite ‘new world’ in character, and not a million miles away from the style that has made Australian wines such a success over recent years. Both Alentejo styles are interesting and worthwhile, but it is the latter, more modern group of wines that has been largely responsible for putting the Alentejo on the map as one of Portugal’s most important red wine regions.

The vast and differentiated Alentejo province is divided into three administrative districts: Portalegre, Evora and Beja which together make up the natural boundaries of Vinho Regional Alentejano. Despite clear regional differences, despite the multiplicity of grape varieties in plantations, and despite the evident heterogeneity of soils that characterize the Alentejo, with disperse outcrops of clay, schist, granite, gravel and limestone, there are many common traits in wines from the great Alentejo plains. Seductive and plentiful fruit, smoothness, full body, and above all enormous consistency harvests after harvest, courtesy of forces of nature suited to the production of wine.

There are over 4,000 identified and catalogued grape varieties in the world and Portugal ranks number two for the country with the highest number of indigenous varieties, varieties that are exclusive to it and not found in any other part of the world.  Newcomers such as Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon are beginning to make inroads, often blended with the local varieties. Some white wines are made in the Alentejo, but it’s the reds that are forging the region’s reputation. Demand for Alentejo wines, with their ripe fruit and full-bodied character, has been such that vineyard land here is among the most expensive in the whole country. Because many of the estates are fairly large and the climate is so reliable, economies of scale mean that Alentejo wines can combine quality with affordability, which is more of a challenge in Portugal’s more northerly regions.

The average yields in the Alentejo are amazingly low at about 40 hectolitres per hectare, but in 1998 they were down even lower, to a meagre 20hl/ha.  The wineries, are bulging with the benefits of investment: glistening stainless steel and pneumatic presses. In line with the overall philosophy of the Alentejo, the winemakers are not simply jumping on the global 'designer wine' bandwagon. At Esporão they have recently bought two Vinimatic automatic fermenters but are again using old-fashioned lagares for better pressing results. At Cartuxa it's the same story. 'We never follow modern trends just for the sake of it,' confirms Rosareo, 'we still blend from large and small oak barrels and concrete to ensure that the oak doesn't dominate the fruit.' In the vineyards it is a slighty different story as the lack and cost of labour is forcing many wineries into technology. Quinta do Carmo is experimenting with mechanical harvesting and Esporão have put in higher trellising to facilitate the narrow machines.

Back in 1992, the boring old statistics showed that only 35,000 litres were exported, but a 70-fold increase by 1996 would put a smile on even the dullest accountant's face. Today's expanding figures show that Germany, the United States, France and the UK, amongst many others, just can't get enough. So, if the winemakers of the Alentejo haven't already voted in Saint Isabella as their patron, it's about time they did. She's obviously adopted them and is throwing more and more roses across the stage of one of the world's brightest newcomers.