Cycling Europe’s Last Wine Frontier in Portugal | Wine Folly’s MAPPED Alentejo (Part 1)

Wine Folly’s MAPPED Alentejo (Part 1) – Don’t miss Europe’s wild wine frontier! This wine-cycling adventure takes wine expert, Madeline Puckette, alongside her teammate (and former pro cyclist) through Portugal’s Alentejo.

See the wines, grapes and wineries featured in this episode on Wine Folly: https://winefolly.com/videos/mapped-alentejo-part-1/

00:59 – The Plan For Today
01:33 – Alentejo’s Grapes
04:55 – On a Vineyard Estate (Esporão)
06:42 – On The Bikes To Artisan Workshops
07:13 – A wool fabric maker (Fabricaal)
08:34 – Portuguese Pottery maker (Rui Patalim)
10:07 – Riding the bikes to Monsaraz

Start in Évora: The Gateway to Alentejo
The journey begins in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Évora, the perfect gateway to Alentejo’s rich winemaking culture. Évora is home to the Rota dos Vinhos do Alentejo, where you can taste a wide array of wines made with native grapes. Highly recommend.

Discover Alentejo’s Unique Grape Varieties
This is the land of grape varieties like Antão Vaz, a fresh and elegant white made in historic clay amphora (Talha – “tahl-yah”). Then there’s Arinto (“Ah-rin-too”), Portugal’s answer to Chardonnay, which shines with its versatility and age-worthiness.

For red wine lovers, Alentejo offers Syrah with a Portuguese twist—bold, floral, and savory. The “Big Reds” like Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional, and Aragonez (aka Tempranillo) rival the world’s best Cabernets. Trincadeira and Alfrocheiro add mouthwatering acidity and complexity (and are often blended).

For sommeliers and Burgundy enthusiasts, check out Moreto. It’s elegant with a Pinot Noir-like profile that thrives in the HOT HOT Beja region in Southern Alentejo. This is a grape to keep your eye on.

A Winery Estate: Sustainability and Innovation in action
We checked out Esporão with José the winemaker. They’re a pioneering estate with 2,000 hectares fully certified organic AND sustainable. Here, we explore their ampelographic field, home to 189 grape varieties. We learn how biodiversity and sustainable viticulture are shaping the future of Alentejo wine, making this a must-see for anyone passionate about sustainability.

Cycling Through Culture and Heritage
Cycling through the countryside, we visit artisan workshops in Reguengos de Monsaraz. Watch as 100-year-old looms weave traditional wool and master potters shape clay amphoras under the summer sun. The day ends with a climb to the medieval hilltop village of Monsaraz, offering sweeping views and a taste of local heritage.

Why Cycling is the Best Way to Explore Wine Country
Cycling is the best way to experience wine country—feel the breeze, connect with the land, and discover hidden gems you’d miss from a car window. Whether you’re a wine enthusiast, a travel lover, or a cycling adventurer, this episode is packed with inspiration, insider tips, and unforgettable moments from Portugal’s Alentejo.

Subscribe and Join the Adventure
Subscribe and follow along to see how our adventure unfolds—there’s so much more to discover in the next episodes! Don’t miss out: hit that subscribe button and join the ride.

Learn wine at Wine Folly → https://winefolly.com/plus/

We’ve officially abandoned posh tasting rooms and studio lighting. Traded them in for two wheels to pedal the untamed back roads of Portugal’s Alentejo. Because this isn’t just another wine region, it’s Europe’s last wild wine frontier. Surrounded by Roman clay pots, the planet’s largest cork oak forests, and wines that consistently defy expectations, we’re here to learn from the winemakers who are breaking the rules while honoring thousands of years of history. I’m Madeline Puckette, your wine nerd in chief. I wrote a New York Times bestselling book on wine and have helped millions of people find their way into wine with my brand, Wine Folly, making it genuinely way more fun to learn by drinking. And joining me on this wild ride is my teammate, David Gluzman, a lifelong cyclist, expert camera wrangler, and the guy who got us out here poking in Alentejo’s most secret cellars. This is Wine Folly’s MAPPED and we’re on a three-part adventure into the heart of Alentejo’s winemaking culture. Our journey starts in southern Portugal in the city of Évora, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the best place to learn more about Alentejo’s wines. Then we hit the road to visit a winery estate that’s gone full sustainable. After that, we’re on the bikes, riding by two local artisan workshops before climbing a hill to end the day at a fortified medieval village with the best views. (upbeat music) The Rota dos Vinhos do Alentejo is the perfect place to learn about and taste the region’s wines. We’re also meeting several winemakers here. This doesn’t smell like anything I’ve smelled before. I don’t even know how to pick a flavor. So it’s a white wine with 11.5% alcohol. It’s the minimum degree for the DOC Alentejo Vinho de Talha 11.5% alcohol is super low. How is this possible? Alentejo sits in southern Portugal, and it’s quite hot here, but it also has a winemaking history that dates back to antiquity. And because of this, there are many native grapes, perfectly suited for the area’s arid climate. The wine I’m trying features local Antão Vaz made in a historic vessel called Talha, a clay amphora. But elegant white wines aren’t the only specialty here. So basically this 100% Syrah, it’s a mono-grape wine. For me, it reminds me dark chocolate. It’s very good. What’s so interesting about tasting something like Syrah in a place like Alentejo is if you know Syrah from somewhere else, you can relate it to what it’s like here. And so what’s different about this area that produces Syrah? And it’s a French grape, perfect in our soil, and the family of our winemaker Tiago, were one of the first to plant this grape in Portugal. Really? It’s an amazing wine. What I like about it is such an amazing amount of extraction, so you’re definitely making a high-quality wine here, but it’s a play between fruitiness, floral, and savory qualities. I get a little bit of black olive, look at the legs. You can see the legs here. Well, look at that. Alentejo wine is more diverse than I thought. Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional, Aragonez, plus a little Syrah, these are the Big Reds, easily rivaling the world’s top Cabernet. Trincadeira and Alfrocheiro offer up mouthwatering acidity, and they’re often blended with the Big Reds to create balance and aging potential. I started calling these red blends “Avant Tejo” because they use classic Portuguese grapes in an international style. But then there’s Moreto. I know my Somm buddies back home will freak out about this wine. It’s elegant like Pinot Noir, but grows in the hottest climate. Finally, the white wines. Smells like pineapple and chervil and a little lemon balm. Most notably, Arinto and Antão Vaz Arinto is Portugal’s answer to Chardonnay. It can be light, rich, aged, and oak, inox, and it has so much age-worthy potential. Antão Vaz, on the other hand, is something distinct. That was fun. That was fun. But now things are starting to get interesting. We’re heading out to a famous winery in the area called Esporão, and we’ll be able to see the vineyards firsthand and feel what it’s like to be in one of them. I think it’s good to go back around almost 20 years when we start the conversion to organic, and that is something that now we have all the property, 2,000 hectares, certified as organic, and it is something that for us it’s really important because it changed completely the way that we produce. Nowadays, and even the culture of the company. First, we’ll see the vineyards that we planted in 2011. That is an ampelographic field. Okay, and then we’ll go to a new vineyard, too, that we planted in the last three years that has completely emerged in what we believe is the natural ambience and ecosystem in here. (upbeat music) This is amazing, right? You need the Ferrari to do it. Yeah, you really do. And so in here, it’s the Ampelographic field where we have each of these rows are a different variety. 189 different wine varieties grow here in the name of science, many of which I’ve never heard of. Some thrive with climate changes, others not so much. We continue to drive through a chaparral forest to a new vineyard separate from the rest. Its isolation protects it from disease and the forest increases biodiversity, including microflora, which helps the vineyard. Here in Alentejo, the producers have little choice than to act more sustainably because the environment here demands it. So that’s first half of the day done, and now it’s the serious part, bike time. Bike time! Woo! It’s hot. Someone’s got a bit more energy than me. I’m not sure if you can tell, but these new outfits look nice, right? Alentejo’s location in southern Portugal means it gets hot, brutally hot, and we happen to be here during a heat wave. But I am determined to keep us on schedule to learn more about the region’s artisan goods, including the amazing wool fabric. My name is Luís, and we are in the Reguengos de Monsaraz, which is the central interior of Alentejo. So we are in Fabricaal, which is a very old factory that exists since 1918, and it’s a factory that keeps a very old tradition from this region, which is the manual weaving of products made out of wool. In the small looms, it’s about one and a half to two days. In the big loom, we have products that can take seven days to be weaved. What inspired you to work in such, it’s a new business for you, but it’s such an old business. What is the inspiration behind this company for you? For me, it’s more like a second life. Of course, it’s a completely new business. I’m coming from a completely different sector. And we got together here because basically we fell in love with this activity, with this art, because for us, this is art. And this is basically what inspired me. So having the second life, so to say, and also being able to support something that has such an important significance for this region. Artisans working 100-year-old looms and 200-year-old amphoras still making wine. It’s clear now, the Alentejanos see value in heritage. (upbeat music) Made it to paint some pottery. See how pottery here is made in Alentejo. This is Rui Patalim. He learned how to make pottery at age seven, here in Corval, Alentejo’s pottery capital. Each piece is handmade and dries slowly outside using the power of the sun. And that means summertime is the busy season. So no pressure, but you’ve just been tasked to draw on some pottery. What are you gonna draw, or is it a big secret? You know, the one thing I know how to draw well, bottles and glasses, man, grapes. I think I’m gonna do what I know how to do best. We’ve got Portugal, there’s Alentejo, and all the major grapes, Moreto, Trincadeira, Antão Vaz, Alicante Bouschet. Let’s see what mom thinks. I have to admit, I was super proud of the design and excited to show Rui and Rui’s mom since she would be painting it. She’s like, all right, I’m on it. She’s like, no reaction. Rui’s mom went right to work painting in the design. No bones about it. I hope it turns out well. Patalim will fire it in the kiln in a couple of days, so we’ll get to see it finished at the end of this trip. In the meantime, there’s work to be done. Yeah, a little bit of wind. Yeah. It’s in the 30s right now. No joke, it’s quite warm. It’s toasty. Nice job on the pottery. That’s pretty rad. Yeah, right? Yeah. Do what you do best. Maps. So now where are we off to? Now we’re heading to Monsaraz, a medieval town on the top of a hill. We just have to climb the hill. (upbeat music) Nice breeze. Oh, it feels so good. What surprised you today? Well, actually more than I thought. One: the people here are awesome. They’re super passionate about their place, Portugal. They’re really proud. And when the wines have all been excellent, really good. That’s not a surprise though. I’m actually validated by the fact that the wine’s been really good. I love seeing all the vineyards today with just full of grasses and flowers everywhere. It’s a sign that it’s a much more sustainable farming methods being generally used here. With just grasses growing like crazy, it’s probably organic or beyond organic. And it’s everywhere. That was a really positive thing for me to see. Tomorrow is a very special day because we go to a part of Alentejo that is growing very ancient grapes and making wine in the old way. And we get to really dive into it. In fact, we found someone, the only person in the world, who is still making Talhas. And we don’t know what it’s gonna be like, but I’m excited to find out. Stay tuned to Wine Folly. Our next adventure takes us deeper into Portugal’s Alentejo, where we learn by drinking. Until next time, happy tasting. Peace out. (upbeat music)