The Alentejo denomination of origin has eight sub-regions: Portalegre, Borba, Évora, Redondo, Reguengos, Granja-Amareleja, Vidigueira and Moura. Almost no label explains what separates them. What separates them is climate, soil and the grapes that can stand each.
Eight sub-regions
The statutes of the Alentejo wine region were approved by Decree-Law 53/2003 of 27 March. That is the document that fixed the map now on the labels.
Portalegre sits to the north, in the Serra de São Mamede, with vineyards between 450 and 760 metres on granite and schist. It rains more there and the summer day to night swing is wide, so the fruit ripens slowly and holds its acidity.
Vidigueira lies south, on a geological fault running east to west for some 50 kilometres. The escarpments temper the heat of an area where summer goes past 35 degrees. It is why Vidigueira has always been white wine country.
Aragonez
It is the same grape called Tinta Roriz in the Douro and the Dão, and Tempranillo across the border.
It ripens early, it is vigorous and productive, and it prefers a hot, dry climate with sandy or clay-limestone soils.
It gives abundant fruit and spice and works best in a blend: with Touriga Nacional in the Douro, with Trincadeira and Alicante Bouschet in the Alentejo.
Trincadeira
In the Alentejo and the Douro it also goes by Tinta Amarela.
Wines of Portugal describes it as a difficult grape, especially vigorous. The bunches are tight, yields are irregular and its sensitivity to disease and rot is extreme.
A tight bunch does not dry out from the inside. That is the technical reason Trincadeira only fruits well where it rains little, in the Alentejo and part of the Tejo.
When it ripens, it gives floral wines, rich in colour and acidity, with moderate alcohol. Short of ripeness, the vegetal side shows. It goes with grilled meat, duck and charcuterie.
Alicante Bouschet
It is a teinturier. The flesh is red, not just the skin. Almost all red grapes give colourless juice, and all the colour comes from the skins.
It was bred in the south of France by Henri Bouschet, crossing Petit Bouschet, obtained by his father Louis, with Grenache. It reached the Alentejo at the end of the nineteenth century, through John Reynolds and his contacts among growers near Montpellier. At Herdade do Mouchão it was already planted in the Dourada vineyard by 1894.
Jancis Robinson wrote that the Alentejo is where the grape found its true home. It gives dense colour, firm tannins and wines that gain years in bottle. It asks for grilled porco preto and lamb stew.
Castelão and the long list
Castelão is the name of the grape. The other name comes from a property: in 1846 José Maria da Fonseca bought Cova da Periquita, in Azeitão, and planted Castelão there. There has been a Periquita vintage since 1850, and the brand was registered in 1941.
In the Alentejo it belongs to the plantings of Vidigueira and Portalegre, almost always in a blend. Alfrocheiro, Moreto, Tinta Caiada and Tinta Grossa are regional grapes too.
Antão Vaz, Arinto, Roupeiro
The Comissão Vitivinícola Regional Alentejana calls Antão Vaz the hallmark of the Alentejo white grapes. It does best in Vidigueira and around Évora. Genetic analysis traced it to a cross of Cayetana Blanca with João Domingos, a red grape thought to be extinct in Portugal.
Thick skins and loose bunches are what let it stand the heat. Picked early, it gives high acidity. Picked late, it gives full wines of citrus and tropical fruit.
Arinto is the corrector. The CVRA speaks of its inflexible acidity and treats it as an improving grape here. It is the same plant the Minho calls Pedernã.
Roupeiro is the most planted white grape in the region. It gives citrus with enthusiasm and loses it quickly after bottling. A Roupeiro is drunk within the year.
The classic Alentejo white blend: Antão Vaz for body, Arinto for acidity, Roupeiro for aroma.
The talha
A talha is a clay vessel. The wine ferments inside it with the skins, the pips and, in some villages, the stems, and stays in contact with all of it until it is drunk. The inside is lined with pine resin, pez louro.
In 1876 João Ignacio Ferreira Lapa called this Alentejo method the Roman system. The name stuck.
The vessels are opened on Saint Martin's day, 11 November.
On 18 August 2026 the general council of the CVRA voted unanimously to extend Vinho de Talha certification to every sub-region. The same decision defined Vinhas Velhas, from 35 years of age, and Vinhas Centenárias, for vineyards registered before 1931.
At the table and in the glass
Serve the whites at 10 to 12 degrees. Colder and the Antão Vaz shuts down, which is precisely the part you are paying for. The reds at 16 or 17. In a Lisbon room in August, the alcohol rises and the fruit disappears.
Read the sub-region before the brand. Portalegre for reds with acidity and high-grown whites. Vidigueira for Antão Vaz. Reguengos and Borba for the blends of Aragonez, Trincadeira and Alicante Bouschet.
The two fado houses keep different lists, in Chiado and in Alfama, and between them 26 wines from the Alentejo. Tables can be booked here.