Vast Passion

Sample the intriguing, indigenous wines of Portugal’s Alentejo.

- Eunice Fried

ALENTEJO FANS OUT EAST OF LISBON, an enormous arc of land covering nearly one-third of Portugal yet holding barely 7 percent of the country’s people. What it lacks in population, it more than makes up for in its wines and vineyards, its cheeses, hams, sausages, cork oak trees and the wheat that makes its memorable breads. And it is equally rich in archaeological finds, ancient towns and millennia-old wine methods. Two thousand years ago, the Romans, who had a long stay in what is now Portugal, made their wine in large clay amphorae. During a recent trip through Alentejo, I came across amphorae, both old and new, in a number of wineries and tasted wines being made in them today.