Anta de Cima - 2015 - Talha de Argilla Tinto Magnum

Herdade da Anta de Cima is a sustainable winery in the distinctly cooler and hillier Portalegre district of northern Alentejo. The estate was acquired in the early 1990s by Paulo Tenreiro, an agronomist looking to put the traditional regional polyculture into practice. Sheep, pigs and cork oak share the estate with seven hectares of vines rooted in clay. Wine production began in 2012, and since 2016 the vines have seen no synthetic pesticide treatments, although due to their size, organic certification is currently economically unfeasible.

The wines are split into two ranges, a basic tank-fermented range called Argilla (“clay”), and a higher-end range called Talha de Argilla (“clay amphora”). Talhas are traditional clay wine storage vessels dating back to the Roman period but fell out of practice in the middle of the 20th century. However, a renaissance is underway. Anta de Cima uses three cuvées fermented and aged in 140-liter unlined amphoras, which allow for a slow, controlled oxidative effect without imparting extraneous flavors and aromas.

Anta de Cima is passionately preserving biodiversity, water, soil and genetic resources while creating circular economies at a farm level.