2024 Herdade do Esporão Tinto, Alentejo, Portugal

ABOUT THIS WINE

Made exclusively from organically farmed grapes grown at Herdade do Esporão. Soils here are granitic with schist transitions, clay-loam structure. The 2024 growing season was Mediterranean-Continental. Autumn and winter were milder and wetter than average. Spring was also mild and very rainy, followed by a dry summer with lower-than-usual temperatures. To achieve greater freshness, the earliest-ripening varieties are selected. Destemming and gentle crushing are completed before going through fermentation in concrete and stainless-steel vats with soft extraction. 

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Esporão was founded in 1977 in the Alentejo, Portugal, out of the unconditional desire to make the finest wines. This is the motivation that remains at the basis of everything they do, now extended to other products - olive oil and tourism - and territories - the Douro and Vinho Verde. The winery is fueled organically using olives left over from making olive oil. 

This is the winegrowing region with the widest variety of soils: granite, crystalline limestone-derived, Mediterranean brown and red and schist. The area is distinguished by gentle plains and shallow valleys carved out by occasional streams, a Mediterranean climate with certain areas boasting a continental microclimate and the constant presence of corn fields, vineyards and olive groves.

Summers are hot and dry, normally with over 20 days above 35° C. The springs and autumns are mild with plenty of sunny days. Winters are kind. Average rainfall during the wettest months is below 80 mm with average temperatures above 10° C, although daily temperature variations can reach 20° C.These characteristics profoundly affect Alentejo’s fauna, flora, landscape, architecture and people.

This Denomination of Controlled Origin (DOC) is made up of 8 sub-regions with a long tradition of wine production: Borba, Évora, Granja-Amareleja, Moura, Portalegre, Redondo, Reguengos and Vidigueira.