XXVI Talhas

XXVI Talhas is the project of winemaker Ricardo Santos and his childhood friend Daniel Parreira. They grew up together in the village of Vila Alva in the Alentejo, where there used to be more Talhas - large earthenware pots in which wine is made - than people lived. This ancient culture has almost completely disappeared. But not entirely thanks to Ricardo and Daniel. The interest in this special way of wine is greater than it has been in decades.

Once upon a time, Vila Alva was teeming with cellars filled with Talhas. The wine was collected from a dripping tap at the bottom of the large pot and drunk by locals. With friends, who never paid for the wine but take food as 'compensation'. This age-old way of winemaking fell into disrepute after the Second World War. It is laborious and difficult to scale. Making wine in huge stainless steel tanks is much easier and cheaper.

But with the disappearance of the Talhas, a part of the culture of the Alentejo also disappeared. That is precisely why Daniel Parreira decided to put his grandfather's old Adega, filled with 26 Talhas, back into use. His grandfather was called Mestre Daniel. A carpenter and gifted winemaker with a spacious Adega in which wine was still made until the 1990s. Childhood friend and winemaker Ricardo Santos did not hesitate for a moment to embark on this special project with Mestre's grandson Daniel. Successfully. Every year they receive a large number of tourists who can get acquainted with an almost forgotten wine culture in their cellar.

Their wines are sold under the name XXVI Talhas at home and abroad. They make red wines, white wines that ferment with skins and stems in the Talha and can therefore be called 'orange' and pink Palhete, which is made according to ancient traditions by adding a little red wine to the white wine. Of course they also use the traditional grapes from the region: Antão Vaz, Roupeiro and Perrum for the white wines and Aragonez, Trincadeira and Tinta Grossa for the red. The wines of XXVI Talhas are without a doubt among the best Talha wines in Portugal.