Outeiros Altos (meaning high hills) is all about masterful grape growing and careful winemaking. Jorge Cardoso and Fernanda Rodrigues, both university-trained agronomists, are true vignerons, focused on growing grapes perfectly suited to their site and making wine that reflects this as transparently as possible. Their commitment to talha is a natural extension of this philosophy.

They began searching for the perfect vineyard site in 1999, eventually establishing Herdade dos Outeiros Altos within Serra d’Ossa’s mountainous country south of Estremoz. 

In 2002 they planted their three vineyards (14 hectares) in a mixture of schist and quartz soils within a bowl-shaped, gentle slope astride the Outeiros Altos hills at 350 meters. After making Alentejo’s first certified Organic DOC wines, they eventually moved on to more intensive biodynamic and natural production, with the first Alentejo’s natural DOC wine following in 2016.

At 650 meters, the Serra d’Ossa range creates a protective micro-climate that delivers ample rainfall (and occasionally snow), cooler nights and fresh foggy summer mornings that positively impact vines. Wines are effectively blended in the vineyard, with grapes selected from up to six varieties, depending on preferred levels of ripeness and their potential to create the best balance between fruit and structure each season.

In keeping with transparency, wine production is fundamentally natural and chemical-free, relying only on spontaneous fermentation and relatively low, if any, sulfite additions. Wine production, totalling 15,000 bottles, is not exclusively focused on talha, with some wine made more conventionally in stainless steel and matured in old, neutral French oak barrels. Both the basic range and the ‘sulfite free’ wine follow that formula. Their reserve wine is a hybrid, not unlike Jose de Sousa’s Major; it is fermented in talha, then aged in French oak. 

Their pure talha wines are certified Vinho de Talha DOC, staying on ‘mother’ at least until November’s St. Martin's Day before bottling. Depending on the season, the red ranges between 1,000 to 4,000 bottles and the white produces around 600 bottles. Outeiros Altos have 28 talha ranging from 150 to 1200 liters, all bought - at considerable cost - off the local market. Most were manufactured in São Pedro do Corval (formerly Aldeia do Mato), Campo Maior, Amieira do Tejo (Nisa municipality), Évora or are of undetermined origin. Remarkably, one is dated 1666, one of the oldest in the country.

Mastering how to make wine in each one of these is a slow, methodical process of discovery. But clearly they’ve made considerable progress so far. Jorge said his white wine ‘reminds him of the wines he drank as a young man’ suggesting his strategies have been able to reproduce the traditional styles he hoped he could replicate.  

One comment Jorge made was quite insightful to unlocking the mystery of pés in former times. He noted he was very careful with pés application. Not wanting to burn the wax and leech smoky/burned characters into the wine, he avoids heating an inverted talha over an open flame fire, opting instead to apply pés more precisely with a blow torch. In all of my conversations so far, no one else had mentioned this. Perhaps his strategy is due to his sensitivity towards maintaining vineyard-derived fruit expression that he works so hard to create most of the year. Outeiros Altos’s talha wines are relatively transparent and seem a pure reflection of the fruit of their vines.

Very much active custodians of their land, the owners of Outeiros Altos are as much about farming and restoring biodiversity as making wine. Growing olive and quince trees, organically of course, they produce oil and olives from the former and Portuguese marmalada from the latter.  The place teems with life, abounding in birds, insects and many types of herbs and flowers, as well as bees that produce intensely flavored honey. 

This visionary couple are creating a much richer environment than the one they found. 

Outeiros Altos Wines

Outeiros Altos Talha Branco 2020  

Outeiros Altos Talha Tinto 2020  

Outeiros Altos Talha Tinto 2019  

Outeiros Altos Talha Tinto 2018  

Outeiros Altos Talha Tinto 2017