The best wines from Alentejo in Portugal

The Alentejo wine region is sometimes called the 'California of Portugal'. Alentejo is big, hot and progressive. Hundreds of top winemakers have revived the forgotten vineyards. Considerable investment has been made and surprising, modern wines are being made.

Check out our five wines from Alentejo

It can be up to 40°C in Alentejo in summer. The sun beats down on the vineyards with their stony soils of granite, slate and quartz. The grapes fight for every drop of water. Their skin is thick and the juice concentrated. They are ripe and harvested as early as August, months earlier than in the rest of Europe.

These circumstances require discipline and craftsmanship from the winemakers. And there it is. Several top winemakers have devoted themselves to the old, forgotten vineyards. They make real 'terroir wines'. They use modern, often reductive vinification methods. But old traditions are not shunned. Stomping with bare feet still occurs regularly. The best wines from Alentejo have achieved true cult status in Portugal. They sell large sums of money at the Portuguese liquor store.

Two-thirds of Alentejo wine is red. Especially from Aragonez (the local name for Tempranillo), Trincadeira and Castelão, but also from Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz and unknown varieties such as Tinta Grossa and Tinta Caiada. Although in a minority, the white wines from Alentejo are also highly regarded. They are made from indigenous grapes such as Arinto (Pedernã), Perrum (Palomino Fino), Antão Vaz and Roupeiro. We currently have five wines from Alentejo in our range. You can view all our wines from Alentejo here.