Alentejo’s annual Amphora Wine Day is the world’s only event exclusively focused on clay pot winemaking. Offering a full gamut of current “amphora” styles (Spanish tinajas, Georgian qvevri, Portuguese talha, and modern renditions of Roman dolia), a day tasting there is akin to claypot wine speed dating.
On November 15, 2025, Herdade do Rocim hosted its eighth straight event with 40 wineries attending from as far afield as Chile, Georgia (four), France (four), Italy (two), and Spain (two), alongside Portuguese producers from the Alentejo, Algarve, Lisboa, Tejo, and Douro regions.
What unites them all is the creative use of continuous micro-oxygenation transferred through terracotta walls, combined with automatic bâtonnage driven by internal convective currents contained within rounded pot bellies. The potential results can enhance varietal characters, consolidate textures, and prematurely soften skin tannins.
Taking a “big tent” approach, stylistic differences within the modern amphora movement grow out of the intensity and polymerization of tannins derived from skin contact (if any), and the fermentation and/or maturation time spent in clay.
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Antiquity’s two “classic” styles revolve around buried Georgian qvevris’ firmer-structured “orange” wines created via six-to-eight months of skin contact, versus the fresher, softer, fruitier styles associated with freestanding Portuguese talhas’ two-to-four-month contact. Whereas the modern-style amphora producers, going back 20 years, are less concerned about skin contact and more about swapping conventional stainless steel and oak processing for clay fermentation and aging.
Amphora Wine Day: Where the modern meets the classical
After years of dynamic interaction between classic and modern producers, Amphora Wine Day always manages to throw up entirely new wine concepts.
Take, for example, Chile’s debut this year. Viña VIK winery describes Stonevik as “the ultimate natural wine created in nature by nature.” A blend of Cabernet Franc (77%), Cabernet Sauvignon, and Carménère grown at 1,000m (3,280ft) on the foothills of the Andes, the wine is naturally fermented in new French oak barriques coopered at the winery, using the vineyard’s fallen oaks to form and toast each barrel. The wine is then matured in uniquely shaped amphorae made from the vineyard’s own clay and fired on the estate.
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But there’s more. Viña VIK says: “The wine was aged in seven [half-buried] amphorae (three to allude to the universe and four to planet Earth) … arranged to emulate an ancient sundial, allowing the wine to unfurl its full potential in alignment with the stellar rhythms and telluric energies of the earth’s electromagnetic fields. The oval shape of the amphorae has been designed to adjust for the movement of the Earth, and the thermal range and atmospheric pressure, stimulating the wine into a continuous circular motion to achieve maximum expression. Being harmoniously positioned to create a Mandela, the light and shadow of day and night passed through the amphorae, in accordance with the cycles of each season, harnessing their energy.”
I reckon the wine’s unique character mainly comes from clay maturation tempering any pronounced new oak characters (aromas, flavours, tannins) and a gifted winemaker, Cristian Vallejo, who worked at Chateaux Margaux. It certainly leans towards Margaux’s aromatic profile, transparency, and finesse.
I will admit to being sceptical of the spiritual influences, nevertheless, the end results are quite captivating. Given its infancy, Viña VIK Stonevik 2024 is as polished as it is approachable. Beautifully uplifted with spicy red fruit aromas, similar flavors play through an expansive mid-to-back palate concentration, gradually tailing off through a long, long comet-like finish. Although expensive, no other wine takes terroir to the nth degree or labour intensity quite like this one (97 points).
Claret in clay
Returning to northern climes and lower altitudes, four producers are spinning Bordeaux styles in new directions.
Château Carsin specifically chose amphora to make their 2024 100% Carménère (11.5%) “as pure as possible.” Fermented on skins, then taken off and returned for six months of clay maturation, it has leathery, black, and red fruit characters, settling into a soft, fleshy, polished texture. (89)
Chateau Petit Guillot’s L’Amour Fragile 2021 is hardly a delicate Sauvignon Blanc. Definitely on the wilder side of orange wine, with indescribable aromas born of three weeks on skins and a year of aging in amphora. It’s about as sassy and dangerous as Savvy gets. (89)
Biodynamic Bordeaux producer Château Couronneau’s Maceration 2024 employs carbonic maceration in amphora to amplify Merlot fruitiness, while its Tournabout 2021 ferments in stainless steel, thereafter blending amphora-aged Cabernet Franc with foudre-aged Merlot.
Whereas, in the Cuvée Jarre series made by another biodynamic winery, the single-variety 2019 Sauvignon Blanc (88), 2018 Malbec (89), and 2016 Merlot are all macerated for six months in amphora before being pressed and returned for another six. Vigneron Virginie Aubrion finds amphora always produces “fresher Malbec, with finer tannins than barrique.”
Back in mountain territory, Mt Etna’s Cantina del Malandrino is one of three there using amphora. Winemaker Diego Bongiovanni found a genuine Roman amphora while renovating a ruined winery on his estate. After cleaning, soaking with tartaric acid, and waterproofing its exterior with cocciopesto (Roman cement), he macerated and aged his Rose 2020 and then his orange Carricante in 2022; both are showing well.
Turning to classic Georgian and Alentejo styles, one recent trend leans toward less skin contact. Georgia has always left choice to individual producers, grape variety, and region, whereas Alentejo’s Vinho da Talha DOC imposes stricter rules.
Although Georgia’s dominant orange wine tradition generally follows six-to-eight-month macerations, fresher styles are on the rise. Tezi Winery, for example, offers different white qvevri styles based around one day, three-week, and four-week macerations, confining reds to six months. Whereas Meskhisvilli Family and Shilda Winery follow more traditional six-to-eight-month routines, Gvymarani stretches maceration between 7 months for whites and a full year for reds.
One winemaker told me that until relatively recently few Georgians had tasted white styles beyond Georgia, let alone their region, suggesting that broader exposure and export markets are driving more qvevri experimentation.
Amphora Wine Day: New talha tales
Alentejo’s DOC rules require wine to be kept on skins in talha until November 11th. Talha-made wine produced any other way cannot reference “talha,” with the wines instead relegated to the “amphora” designation. With global warming pushing recent harvests back into August or July, skin contact averages four-plus months, whereas historically it was closer to just a couple. Today’s DOC Talha wines are, arguably, nearer to orange styles than they were originally.
An important workaround is that DOC regulations don’t mention the amount of skin contact, just timing. Increasingly, producers reduce skin content by up to 75% creating a newer, lighter, fresh, finer, fruitier Vinho da Talha DOC style. Several producers make both this newer, fresher version and firmer structured Vinho da Talha DOC styles alongside freer-form amphora wines.
Herdade do Rocim is a prime example of refining all three styles, plus a purely “aged in clay” variation. It’s one reason why the producer now sells wines in 45 countries, and has become Alentejo’s most successful talha-focused winery globally.
At Amphora Wine Day 2025, there were top-notch Vinho da Talha DOC wines from (listed from classic to fresher styles): Adega Borba, Adega Vidigueira, XXVI Talha, Adega das Flores, Esporão, Bojador, and Rocim. All are terrific, authentically conceived, transparent expressions reflecting time and place.
The leading talha-made, amphora-designated styles, with either shorter skin contact or a hybridized mix of talha combined with wood or stainless steel processing, include: Fitapreta, Howard’s Folly, Natus Vini, and Rocim. All show high levels of creative thinking in matching talha usage to specific grapes and vintage conditions.
Interesting outliers include Alentejo’s Aldeia de Cima, who swapped talha for Spanish tinajas and Italian-produced amphorae made from Roman Cocciopesto cement. Their Myndru 2021, a 13% alcohol, Alfrocheiro, Tinta Grossa, and Baga blend, clay-aged for 14 months, speaks of stones, red fruits, and finely balanced elegance. (95) The Douro’s Niepoort Voyeur 2022 (11.5%) co-fermented multiple red and white grapes from six old field-blend vineyards, continuing maceration for another 6 months in clay. A lovely, light-on-its-feet, highly aromatic, succulent, remarkably easy quaffer, it counterpoints the high-alcohol, super-ripe Douro norm. (89)
Reflecting on this year’s event. For five hours a thousand wine enthusiasts, joined by several dozen wine journalists, importers and buyers from Angola, Brazil, EU, Mozambique, South Korea, Sweden, USA, UK, and elsewhere around the world, tasted their way through dozens of terracotta-pot wines. Top Lisbon restaurateurs served regional specialties throughout the day (typical among these, an awesome veal stew with freshly sliced local porcinis that were nearly a foot long). All this serenaded by a traditional men’s choir roaming the hall, swaying arm-in-arm, singing local folk tunes, as they commonly do in nearby villages. The atmosphere was magical, full of happy, satisfied people.
Veteran Brazilian wine journalist Suzanne Barelli, who has attended many previous events, cheerily noted that, “This is the best one so far.”
For me the most precious moment at Amphora Wine Day 2025 came as a surprise. One outstanding wine I tasted was Cooperativa Vidigueira’s 2025 baseline talha red. Supposedly a modest everyday wine, it had depth that only 130+-year-old ungrafted vines produce. Drawn fresh from the pot that morning, it shouted out its black cherry purity at full volume. The sort of wine one can drink all evening without tiring of it. I asked when it would be bottled and was told, NEVER. It was ver da talha, wine sold only at the winery, where it’s drained directly from talha into bring-your-own containers.
Fifteen years ago that wonderful old talha tradition was teetering on the brink of extinction. Once again it’s central to village life and bound to stay that way for another few thousand years.
