Honrado Winery in Alentejo Portugal

On the weekend of São Martinho Day, traditional Portuguese musicians sang as we descended into the cellar at Honrado located in Vila de Frades “the Capital of Vinho de Talha” in the county of Vidigueira, Beja District, Alentejo, Portugal. With a small crowd, we waited for the main event: the tapping of the Talhas. Pronounced talhas, the large clay pots almost magically turn grapes into wine in the brief months following that year’s harvest. It’s a sacred ceremony, a moment of truth — is the wine good?– and a festive time for friends and family to gather.

Tapping a Talha at Honrado

We’d already attended several parties, tastings, and the huge World Amphora Day event at Rocim which includes seminars and wines from around the world. So at Honrado we weren’t seeing our first talha tapped by any means. But each time it’s special, and worthy of watching. We saw young and old, women and children, all participating in this timeless ritual where the wine is first sipped as we slipped our small glass drinking jars under the slowly flowing tap to taste for ourselves the fruits of this year’s labor.

We’d seen and tasted fresh tapped wine from talha at several venues over the weekend, but out of all the places I visited during my 10 day stay in Portugal last fall, it was this cellar that had the biggest impact, and is the story I tell the most. Continue reading →