Our part of Portugal is known as the last wild coast in Europe and it’s a beautiful place to start a podcast series on Portuguese wine.
Long-distance hikers pound the Rota Vicentina Fisherman’s trail which follows more than 200km of clifftops, surfing spots and secret beaches on the country’s Atlantic west coast.
And one stretch of this epic two week walk features the first winery on the list for our Big Portuguese Wine Adventure – Vicentino.
The wines are fresh and fruity and instilled with the saltiness of the Atlantic Ocean which their 60 hectares of grape vines overlook.
We decided to start local: Vicentino is the nearest vineyard to the place we now call home in Portugal’s Alentejo region.
The Spanish might call it Allan-tay-HOE, but here in Portugal it’s Allan-tay-JOE and it’s Portugal’s biggest province covering a third of the country.
As early adopters to The Big Portuguese Wine Adventure blog will know – the name comes from Alem-Tejo...Portuguese for “beyond” the Tejo, or Tagus River, on which Lisbon is situated.
And we are?
We travelled the world together as a diplomat and journalist couple, but one day we decided to give up our jobs and move to the Portuguese countryside – to build an eco-luxe lodge (which is almost finished!) and learn about wine.
Inspired by a scraggy line of overgrown grapes that emerged from our land when we moved in, we decided to plant our own vineyard and maybe one day make our own wine...but first there was a lot of learning to do!
Our house isn’t connected to any municipal water or power grid and so we also had to learn how to live off-the-grid.
If you want to read how hard that’s been, Al also writes a blog called Off-Grid and Ignorant in Portugal, but given his previous job as a BBC foreign correspondent we thought making a podcast series was more in our comfort zone!
We’ve spent the last couple of years exploring Alentejo’s history and geography through wine, winemakers and the stories they tell...and wanted to share our journey with you.
So thanks for reading, but most importantly thanks for listening, and welcome to Episode 1!
So what’s Alentejo wine?
Vicentino doesn’t make wine that is typical to this region.
Most Alentejo wines are grown inland – far from the moderating effect of the ocean – and are heavier, stronger and more powerful with all the heat and sunshine.
Alentejo produces more than 40% of Portugal’s wines and is known for its great value, easy drinking reds, as well as some amazing white wines.
But it’s also home to talha wine – made in amphorae or clay pots like the Romans did two thousand years ago...and people here have been making it that way ever since.
We’ll be delving into the heart of Alentejo wine country in Episode 2 and trying some talha later in the series, but for the first instalment we’re drinking pinot noir naked and learning the connection between French grapes, cat pee and the Beatles.
Salivating storytellers
Our guide to Vicentino is maverick Norwegian owner Ole Martin Siem who salivates over the Chardonnay grapes gifted to him from Burgundy and talks in simple terms about taste and bouquet.
We’re not wine experts, just enthusiastic amateurs, eager to demystify wine appreciation and its sometime intimidating language, and Ole Martin enthusiastically sets us off on that path.
He has farmed in Alentejo since the 1980s but is relatively new to winemaking – his first grapes were planted in 2007 – but Vicentino is now one of the biggest Pinot Noir producers in Portugal and is doing something a little bit different.
Touriga Nacional, Aragonez, Alvarinho and Arinto are among the 250 indigenous Portuguese grapes which are grown in Vicentino’s vineyards and we’ll learn much more about them later in the series.
But international grapes including Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah and Chardonnay all do really well on this coast – as they do in regions with similar climates, latitudes and ocean influence: South Africa’s Western Cape and the Californian Central Coast.
Listening and learning
In every half hour episode we learn a new skill – starting off this time at the very beginning of the growing season with pruning, and some advice about what to do with our scraggy, overgrown vines.
We stop to have a “Clink and a Think” about Portuguese wine history dating back to 800BC and the Phoenicians, and hear a great story about this remarkable “green triangle” of agricultural land and why the viticulturalists have their eye on our coast.
But let’s not spoil the journey! You can find The Big Portuguese Wine Adventure wherever you get your podcasts: Spotify, Apple Podcasts...you name it.
I need a drink
Portuguese wine makers like to keep the best for themselves, so it’s not always easy to get hold of the wines we’ve been tasting and discovering.
Obviously the best way to taste the wine is to drop by our place Vale das Estrelas (or the Valley of the Stars).
Our eco-luxe lodge is opening this year and we’re stocking our cellar full of Alentejo wines.
The views are outstanding, the wines are great and the stories are even better.
I really need a drink...now
While you plan your trip to Portugal we’ll help you get hold of the wines we’re tasting wherever you are...when they’re available.
It’s tough to find them in the US right now, but there are some stockists you can find in the UK through Vindependents.
Episode 1: Starting local