The Alentejo Wine Country

The Alentejo is flat, hot and enormous, and it makes the wine most Portuguese households actually drink: soft, ripe reds from Alicante Bouschet, Trincadeira and Aragonez, and whites from Antao Vaz that have to be picked early to keep any acidity at all. Estates here are large, modern and easy to visit, with tasting rooms built for the purpose. Underneath that runs something much older: around Vidigueira and Cuba, wine is still fermented in talhas, clay amphorae taller than a person, sealed with pine pitch and left with the skins inside. The pots are traditionally tapped on the eleventh of November and drunk straight from them.

What you actually see

• The talha wines - fermentation in clay amphorae, the pots tapped in November.
• The estate tasting rooms - large modern quintas set up for visitors.
• Alicante Bouschet - the red-fleshed grape the region made its own.
• Cork oak country - stripped trunks and grazing pigs between the vineyards.

When to go

Spring, when the plain is green and covered in wildflowers, or late September for the harvest. November is the moment for talha wine, when village adegas open the pots and serve it new. Avoid July and August if you can, because forty degrees is normal and the tasting room is the only cool place. Book estate visits ahead.

Honest expectations

Distances are long and monotonous, and the plain reads as empty to anyone expecting the Douro's drama. Many estates are corporate operations where the visit is a scripted tour with a fixed pour. Talha wine is cloudy and oxidative and divides people sharply at first sip. Drink-drive limits mean somebody has to abstain, and taxis between estates barely exist.

Nearby

Evora sits in the middle of the region; Monsaraz and the Alqueva lake lie to the east.