Attending Alentejo’s Amphora Wine Day?

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Why attend Alentejo’s Amphora Wine Day?

by L.M. Archer

 

Alentejo’s Herdade do Rocim hosts Amphora Wine Day on 16 November. Here’s everything you need to know about the event.

Launched by ROCIM in 2018, Amphora Wine Day coincides with St. Martin’s Day, a celebration of Alentejo’s patron saint, and sees more than 60 international producers and wine cognoscenti converge.

Attendees talk clay pots, and taste wines from Alentejo, Armenia, Georgia, and beyond.

“It’s fantastic that a small producer like us has an event with over 1,600 people – to taste only amphora wine!” says ROCIM winemaker Vânia Guibarra. “It’s very important to show to all people how different amphora wines can be. To the rest of the world, it’s important to know a little more about our history with amphoras, and how we work.”

“Since its inception in 2018, Alentejo’s annual Amphora Wine Day has grown into the ‘ground zero’ event for the global clay pot wine movement,” concurs Paul J. White, a noted authority on talha (Portuguese wine made in clay amphorae) and author of “Talha Tales.”

White comes for the wine, but stays for the vibe.

“In essence, this gathering brings together 6,000 year-old winemaking traditions,” he says. “Modern minds are spinning entirely new wine styles out of ancient technology.”

Like magic

Alentejo’s ancient talha (pronounced ‘tal-yah’ or ‘tal-ha’) winemaking methods prove surprisingly sustainable.  Each pot, fashioned from local clay, can hold up to 2,000 litres of wine must. Winemakers coat the interior with pés, a melted mélange of biodiverse beeswax, pine sap, olive oil and herbs, to prevent seepage, and moderate oxygen intake.

“Used as both fermentation and ageing vessels, clay pots’ oxygen transference rates supplant the modern affects of oak barrel maturation, allowing more intensity and purity of flavours, aromas, and faster textural integration, without oak’s telltale added flavours, aromas, and tannins,” explains White. READ MORE HERE.

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