The final Alentejo tour has started and despite Lisbon passport control doing its very best to disrupt our day, we managed to arrive at Wine Corner – the restaurant of JM Fonseca winery – more or less on time.
The restaurant, based in Azeitão in the Setúbal Peninsula, has served us well this year with great food and wine, terrific service and a very convivial atmosphere. Today was no exception as we tucked into some delicious prawns and tuna, followed by amazing Entrecote steak, chips and spinach. Simple fare but expertly done. All washed down with a crisp Moscatel white and the famous Periquita reserva red. We rounded off the lunch with a 10 year old and 20 year old Moscatel de Setúbal – the acclaimed fortified wine of the region.
This was a great start to the tour and a somewhat quiet coach ride to Évora.
Our second day dawned and on the itinerary was a relatively short drive east of Evora to the town of Reguengos do Monsarez. Here you find the historic winery of Jose Sousa which was bought by JM Fonseca back in 1986. The last family member of Jose Sousa was a doctor in Lisbon and wasn’t keen to continue the family tradition in wine. Fonseca wanted to preserve the amazing Clay Pot wine production history and have continued making wine in this very ancient way.
Ligia hosted our visit and illuminated us on various wine making techniques but the true glory was to be found in the cellar. Here stand 114 claypots of varying sizes – the oldest dating back to 1655 – and the sense of history was palpable. Only twenty or so pots are currently in use as production of the Puro Talhas is quite limited.
The production method is fascinating: each pot is a third filled with grape stems, and the balance filled with grapes that are lightly crushed. Regular punching down and cooling of the pots with water allows the fermentation to progress and the skins are left in the pot until February the following year. The stems allow a natural drainage and filtration and the wine is transferred into a clean pot. They add olive oil which gives a natural liquid barrier and the continues to age.
Regulars had never seen anything like this on previous tours and we could barely wait for the chance to taste their wines. Heading back into their historic tasting room, with the help of Josep, their winemaker, we settled into a white comparison – Puro Talha (clay pot white) vs their modern conventional white blend and three reds Puro Talha and their Reserva and Mayor. The conventional wines were very well made, utterly delicious and great value for money – made from a range of indigenous and international grape varieties. The Clay Pot wines were fascinating. Both wines were from 2015 and the white was a dark gold colour with marmalade and dried fruits and a sense of oxidised sweetness on the nose. Palate wise it was dry and actually quite simple yet very interesting. The red felt oxidised on the nose but was fresh on the palate, very soft tannins and a wonderful sense of cleanness.
From Sousa it was just a twelve minute drive to one of the most famous estates in Portugal – Esporão. Dating back to 1267, the modern day wine history starts in 1985 with the release of the Esporao Reserva and they have never looked back. Owning vineyards in the Alentejo, Douro Valley and the Minho, Esporão now produce 12 million bottles per year and quite a lot of fabulous olive oil. Add to this a Michelin star restaurant and a very professional tourism set up we we ready for a great experience. On arrival, we headed straight into a fabulous lunch. A range of sharing starters, the most perfect slow roasted lamb, baked rice and salad. A chocolate mousse finished us off nearly. A wonderful Loureiro, Alentejo Shiraz and a 10 year old tawny port accompanied the lunch.
We prised ourselves off our seats and headed off for a walk around the estate with Anabella who was utterly brilliant in bringing some energy to proceedings as she talked us through the cellars, some winery operations and the barrel cellar. We rounded off the day with six wines – three white and three red that showcased the high quality of the Esporão range.
