Alentejo. Hear the silence. Dream in colours

This article on Alentejo illustrates the abundant offer that the region has in terms of wine and the tourism that derives from it. Whilst going into the region's wine history it also shows the region's potential. A good description of one of Portugal's most relevant wine regions, it goes on to describe the reality of the region's culture and people, including the typical Dolium wines there produced, resorting to an ancient technique inherited from the Roman occupation.

The serenity of a landscape that unfolds itself into beaches and golden plains, in ridges and lakes of colossal size, which translates into an astonishing wildlife and an all-year round attractive climate, is the framework of ancestral and deeply rooted cultures that were never forgotten and that live together in a casual way with the day-to-day of the 21^st Century. In Alentejo, enotourism is increasingly becoming a side invitation, as the projects of Torre de Palma (Monforte) and São Lourenço do Barrocal (Reguengos de Monsaraz) attest for.

A land of multiple shades, with unparalleled starlit nights (that dwarf Van Gogh’s representations) and days that illustrate poems from Florbela Espanca – “Noon: the hoisted sun comes down ablaze / shedding gold on everything (…)”, Alentejo is one of the most promising enotourism regions on a global scale. Creativity and entrepreneurship thrive, with increasingly perceivable results. In 2014, the American newspaper “USA Today” nominated Alentejo as the best wine region in the world to visit. And with each year, new projects emerge with a concern for sustainability, land preservation and a strong awareness for social significance within the community.

Throughout the historical course of wines in Alentejo we bore witness to a rebirth at the end of the 20^th Century. Portugal’s admission into the European Union impacted this region profoundly and at the end of the decade of 1980, we start witnessing a change. Up until then the adegas cooperativas were abundant, community cellars that intelligently and dynamically figured how to take an advantage from the first European community funds for modernisation. As opposed to the scenario of the adegas cooperativas on other regions during the same time, Alentejo takes a huge in its quality standards. Not only are the infrastructures improved, but also, in terms of human resources, experts with training started becoming indispensable. Due to all of this, the quality of the wines increases and the labels of Alentejo start achieving recognition.

Driven by these winds of change, new individual producers emerge, with cellars of their own. And it is here that our story begins. Those pioneers from the end of the 20^th century start from scratch. Whether in terms of means (they built cellars and structures to support allocation) or in terms of land. And so begins the acquisition of land for viticulture, land which had never been met with grapevine before or that for large decades were given no such purpose.

The truth is that all this re-emergence of the wine, revealing a fresh and modern attitude, paired with the natural and cultural conditions Alentejo has to offer for tourism, contribute to an unparalleled development of offer in Portugal. This region has seen in the past two decades, the number of producers grow exponentially, a growth paired with the amount of wine cellars that can be visited and with the emergence of hotel venues, many of which located within the same homesteads that produce wine.

The investments from the new producers characterize themselves for being well thought out and nicely executed for the most of it, making use of the most recent techniques and using the most modern equipment, making Alentejo the place where we can find the most sophisticated cellars in. There are even those who dub the region “New World”.

The truth is that all this transformation has always been portrayed by an open spirit (distinctively characteristic, in fact, of the people of Alentejo) and only that manner of being enables the traditional structures to be preserved side-by-side with the most advanced cellars, with the same way of making wine ever since the foundations. And that makes it a huge appeal for tourists. The cultural and historical values associated with this reality are precious, and the stay there can reveal itself as a journey throughout the history of the wine. Alentejo is the region where, even in the roughest days of the grapevines’ complete destruction (during the re-establishment of independence in the 17^th century, the Napoleonic wars, with the fostering of the Douro by Marquês de Pombal or during the Portuguese dictatorship of the 20^th century), the wine kept being made for local consumption, never having lost the ties to its mediterranean heritage.

Alentejo is also the region where the Roman knowledge was never lost. Highly advanced technology-wise, the Romans developed the fermentation in clay amphorae, having spread that technique to all the territories within the Empire. However, only in Alentejo was that custom preserved uninterruptedly for over two thousand years, constituting the dolium wine as a live witness to the Romanisation of the Iberian Peninsula (and particularly Alentejo’s).

The history of enotourism in Alentejo is rewritten daily and continuously and is surely related to history that comes along with the emergence of its new producers, as we have already seen. It also has to do with another very important and indispensable component, the fact that more and more tourists seek out Alentejo out of interest for its wine culture: the region’s natural, cultural and historical features, as well as the entities’ acknowledgement of that significance and the establishment of structures to divulge and take advantage of them. Alentejo has known how to make a powerful and notable brand out of itself.

The serenity of a landscape that unfolds itself into beaches and golden plains, in ridges and lakes of colossal size, which translates into an astonishing wildlife and an all-year round attractive climate, is the framework of ancestral and deeply rooted cultures that were never forgotten and that live together in a casual way with the day-to-day of the 21^st Century.

Alentejo holds one of the purest and cleanest landscapes on the country (it’s the region with the largest area and lowest population density in Portugal). And the local architecture plays a part in this purity. With a mediterranean soul, it comes alive from the civilisation of clay and it is profoundly lonesome. Its wealth is its plainness. There shouldn’t be many other architectonical depictions in which, formally speaking, almost nothing can signify so much. Its bond to the earth, the strongly horizontal volumetry, present as much in its common and vernacular architecture as in its scholarly manifestations, transmit unique serenity and harmony.

The wine and the vine in Alentejo thus see themselves included in a global vision that encompasses culture, leisure, sport (the region has excellent conditions for numerous activities) and, obviously, gastronomy. The wealth of Alentejo’s cuisine is one of the solid pillars of Alentejo’s tourism, being an obvious reason of pursuit, curiosity for those that have an interest in wine culture.

The cuisine of Alentejo has made its way through history without losing its identity. Revolving around four different produce – bread, olive oil, wine and pork -, the cooking that exists today makes use of recipes that are over a thousand years old. With the exact same produce cooked just the same. “It’s a splendorous cuisine, with no vertigo of identity.”, as written by Alfredo Saramago. The region’s isolation and poverty urged the creative use of its natural and seasonal resources, and as of today it is still solid and healthy, savoury, defiant and timeless.

The human being is by nature restless. Curious. Demanding. The traveller whose interest lies in something as profoundly mysterious as well as beautiful, such as wine, is certainly amongst those who are demanding. And I believe that is what Alentejo figured. That’s the difference acknowledged internationally. An original offer, intelligent and supported. Over there, where silence is heard.

page 81-83, Wine magazine, September/October 2016