Wines
Summary
Gerações da Talha is located in Vila de Frades (Alentejo) and dates from the 18th century. The winery was acquired by Francisco Nogueira Anacleto, who inherited and masterfully passed on the art and wisdom of producing talha wine to the generations that followed. The winery gained notoriety after Francisco passed his art and wisdom to his son in law Arlindo Ruivo. Today Arlindo’s granddaughter Teresa Caeiro manages the winery and is dedicated to preserving this unique winemaking tradition which has a two thousand year history.
Talha wine is unique to Alentejo wine culture and originates from a winemaking process that was brought to the area by the ancient Romans. Before getting into the details, it's interesting to note that the talha process is not simply "amphora wine". While amphora wines are aged in clay - at times after traditional fermentation in stainless steel - talha wines are even more eccentric in that the grapes undergo their whole evolution in the clay vessels. Winemakers can climb ladders to reach inside with long paddles to move the grapes around and punch down the solids that rise to the cap during fermentation, but they can't taste nor intervene. At the end of the process, the stopper at the base is unscrewed, and a spigot is inserted.
The clay pots themselves are varied ages, amounts of use, shape, and size, depending on who made them. Results are unique with every vintage and release.
