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Alcoholic drinks from Alentejo

Vinho de talha (Portugal) and tinaja wine (Spain)vinho de talha

Vinho de talha is Alentejo wine fermented and kept in large clay jars (talhas) lined inside with pitch, in what one producer calls an ancestral Roman system. Destemmed, crushed grapes ferment in the talha for three to four weeks while the floating skins are pushed down. The skins and seeds then sink into a mat called the mãe, and the wine stays on it until St Martin's Day, 11 November, before it is drawn off through a hole near the base.

Fully documentedAlcoholic drinks21 days – 28 daysDO Alentejo, traditional method "vinho de talha" (Portaria n.º 296/2010, article 8(3))Family: Qvevri wine (Georgian buried-amphora wine)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo fixed batch. The rules set how the wine is made, not the amounts; one talha holds the grapes, the fermentation and the finished wine.
Destemmed, crushed grapes with their juiceSkins and seeds stay in the talha[borba2016]
Nothing else in the traditional methodTraditional talha wine is fermented with no additives; the pitch lining keeps the must off the clay[abarca2025][cabrita2021]
Starterspontaneous, from the indigenous yeast in the fruit (one producer's account)

Total time across the recorded steps: 21 days – 28 days

Start
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What changes: Ripe grapes are picked from Alentejo vineyards

Step 1 of 5
Harvest grapes from DO Alentejo vineyards
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

Output: ripe grapes.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Vinho de talha is Alentejo wine fermented and kept in large clay jars (talhas) lined inside with pitch, in what one producer calls an ancestral Roman system. Destemmed, crushed grapes ferment in the talha for three to four weeks while the floating skins are pushed down. The skins and seeds then sink into a mat called the mãe, and the wine stays on it until St Martin's Day, 11 November, before it is drawn off through a hole near the base. Made in 5 steps over 21 days – 28 days. The longest step, ferment in the talha, punching down the cap, takes 21–28 days (Adega de Borba 2016). Indigenous yeasts of the fruit does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step21–28 daysReported[borba2016]Ferment in the talha, punching down the cap
AciditypH 3.7Reported[borba2016]Draw the wine off from the bottom

What makes this one different

Like Georgian qvevri wine it ferments on its skins in clay. The talha is traditionally lined with pitch, and the wine is drawn off through a hole near the base once the skins have settled into the mãe. The Adega de Borba sheet says DO Alentejo certification requires the wine to stay on the mãe until St Martin's Day.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Vino nuevo de tinaja (Montilla-Moriles)Listed as an optional label term in the Montilla-Moriles PDO.
  • CoatingsTalhas may be lined with new or old pitch, beeswax or epoxy resin, or left bare; one study compared white wines made in each.

Safety

The producer sheet reports total sulphur dioxide below 100 mg/l and a pH of 3.70 in its finished red. The traditional pitch lining holds resin compounds, one a possible allergen, and a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon; in an Italian experiment with pitch-coated amphorae none of the pitch's hazardous compounds showed up in the wine, but that was not Alentejo wine, and the study set no detection limits, so trace migration is not ruled out. The study also says migration during long contact, such as ageing, still has to be checked.

Hazards the sources name: Compounds from the pine-pitch lining (resin acids, one a possible allergen, and a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon); none were detected in wine from pitch-coated experimental amphorae in Italy, though the study set no detection limits.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The DO Alentejo technical file credits winemaking in talhas and amphorae to Roman and Phoenician times and says the technique is still used in the region's cellars. The Adega de Borba sheet calls talha wine an ancestral Roman system. Herdade do Esporão says amphora wine in the Alentejo goes back over 2,000 years, that it is traditional to leave the pulp in the amphorae until St Martin's Day, and that the technique is now on the verge of extinction. Esporão revived it in 2014.

  1. [portaria296] Portaria n.º 296/2010, de 1 de Junho (DO Alentejo and IG Alentejano), Diário da República, 1.ª série, n.º 106, pp. 1885–1891 (FAOLEX copy)spec
  2. [alentejo-pdo] Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho 2011, DO Alentejo technical file (PDO-PT-A1542, Ares(2011) 1406807), eAmbrosia register, European Commissionspec
  3. [montilla-pdo] Montilla-Moriles PDO single document (PDO-ES-A1479, Ares(2014)2132365), eAmbrosia register, European Commissionspec
  4. [abarca2025] Abarca-Rivas C., Lozano-Castellón J., Pérez M. et al. 2025, Exploring the impact of pitch-coated pottery on wine composition, metabolomics characterization of an ancient technique, Foods 14(22):3857paper
  5. [cabrita2021] Cabrita M.J., Garcia R., Freitas F., da Silva M.G. 2021, Vinhos de talha, to pitch or not to pitch, Macrowine 2021, IVES Conference Seriespaper
  6. [borba2016] Adega de Borba, Talhas de Borba tinto 2016, technical sheet (producer)web
  7. [esporao-amphora] Herdade do Esporão (producer), The art of making amphora wineweb