Located between Lisbon and the Algarve, the Alentejo is the largest and most sparsely populated region of Portugal. It receives relatively few foreign tourists, said Niki Blasina in the Financial Times, though it is beautiful, with its “savannah-like” landscape of olive groves, cork oaks and vineyards; and for oenophiles, it is a “revelation” – producing a distinctive range of excellent wines.
Interest, however, is now growing in the region. Baixo Alentejo (Lower Alentejo) was named this year’s European Wine City (despite not being a city). The historic town of Évora in Alentejo Central will be one of the EU’s two capitals of culture next year. And winemakers are helping to draw visitors with “destination restaurants and stylish hotels”. In the summer, the Alentejo becomes an arid “golden plain”. By contrast, when I was there, in late February, the orchards and almond groves were in blossom, and shoots were poking from “craggy” vines.
My suite at the Herdade da Malhadinha Nova hotel was “strikingly modern”, a concrete structure with glass walls, a plunge pool and a private terrace commanding views over fields where storks’ nests adorn the trees “like colossal Christmas decorations”. The hotel is on a 744-hectare estate that guests can explore on horseback, and there’s a winery and a restaurant overseen by Joachim Koerper of the Michelin-starred Eleven in Lisbon.
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The wines are organic, and there are tastings to give visitors a sense of the unique appeal of the Alentejo, which has “dozens” of indigenous grape varieties that are unfamiliar to most outsiders. Among the region’s best wineries is Fitapreta, which occupies a 14th century palace with “soaring” ceilings. I loved its white Paulistas (€50), with grapes from Chão dos Eremitas, a vineyard that dates back to the 14th century.
I also visited Herdade do Rocim, an estate known for producing wines in clay amphorae, just as the Romans did in the Alentejo. The results tend towards the “fresh” and “mineral” – and are perfect sipped “chilled on a warm day”.