Detox or Retox?

Tucking into some wine tasting

Inspired by the yoga retreats, detoxifying mindfulness workshops and healthy-living permaculture that are popular in our part of Portugal we’ve decided to start our own wellness movement.

With roots in the Roman era it will be based around the natural process of fermentation and will focus one’s heart centre on the imbibing of a healthy, nutritious blend of grape juice.

There are at least 250 indigenous grapes in Portugal and a few people make a little wine here, so amid all the detoxing we think there’s room to focus on retox.

Obviously, having our own cult would be ideal, but to begin with we may have to settle for an institute, and the title of the Retox Institute of Portugal (RIP) has been discussed.

But we’ve been so distracted by learning to live off the grid – how to repair, renovate and replace everything – that our wine studies thus far have been limited.

This week we had our first proper trip to the heart of Alentejo’s winelands.

Howard’s Folly winery is within the walls of Estremoz

It’s a two and a half hour drive from Vale das Estrelas to Évora – a world heritage walled city with its own Roman temple – the gateway to Alentejo wine country that surrounds the Spanish border.

It’s a beautiful drive through a landscape of rolling hills, cork oaks and olive groves peppered with forts, castles and monasteries perched on their own little mountains.

Évora hosts the tasting rooms and headquarters of Wines of Alentejo, or the Comissão Vitivinícola Regional Alentejana (CVRA), whose logo certifies authentic regional wines. 

They also promote the wineries, the wine routes and the whole enoturismo industry (as they call it) in this part of the world.

But we hadn’t come here to look at Roman remains – I mean everyone has seen loads of them haven’t they? Our friend Firle certainly has.

Whatever. The usual bog-standard amazing Roman remains that walled World Heritage city Évora is famous for…

It was a stop en route to Estremoz – another smaller and arguably even more beautiful walled city – and a wine tasting invitation for Howard’s Folly winery.

Howard Bilton is a Yorkshireman, a Hong Kong-based entrepreneur, art lover and philanthropist who liked the wine so much he bought the vineyard…and the historic building for an urban winery, restaurant and gallery within the Estremoz city walls.

Message on a bottle: the artist Xu Bing’s label for Howard. Xu is one of China’s foremost and innovative artists and invented “New English Calligraphy.”

He also happens to be best mates with our friend DC: a former colleague, award-winning BBC cameraman and Bangkok-based bon vivant who we hadn’t seen for years and had persuaded Howard to host us.

They were still on the way back from dinner with Ai Weiwei (as you do) – who has recently moved to Alentejo – leaving Ana and I in the expert hands of assistant winemaker Pedro Furriel.

Pedro oozed pride and enthusiasm for the beautiful new building, with its Dalek-like fermentation tanks, Roman amphorae and barrel room.

Assistant winemaker Pedro Furriel explained how Howard used reconstituted Daleks to create fermentation vessels.

Howard founded his Folly in 2002 in partnership with David Baverstock – an Australian who has been the chief winemaker at the famous Esporão for the last 20 years.

The new winery opened in 2018 and Pedro talked us through the process, the pig art and the variety of Portuguese grapes they blend with.

He’s the guy to go to if you don’t know your Aragonez from your Alicante Bouchet or your Antão Vaz from your Arinto.

We were told by a friend and international wine trader a few years ago that Alentejo wines are some of the best in the world – and amazing value – but they’ll never be popular because nobody can pronounce the Portuguese names of their indigenous grapes.

So, one of the main tasks of the RIP will be to translate the country’s wines and match them to international tastes.

The height of good taste: sampling these six got the evening off to a good start

Alentejo’s most well-known wines are big and fruity red blends of Portuguese grapes such as Aragonez, Touriga Nacional and Alicante Bouchet.

Howard’s Folly blended these three with Syrah for their 2016 Sonhador red wine which is peppery, red berried and their most current red vintage.

They do a Sonhador rosé (2020) and a white (2019) that is extraordinary – one of those wines we didn’t quite know how to describe…and Ana’s really good at describing wine.

Rolling out the barrel for us in Howard’s Folly winery

That’s when Pedro started talking about the challenge and the adrenaline associated with making field blend wines.

Field blends are made from blocks of land with a mixture of different wine grape varieties which are harvested and then fermented together to make a different wine every year.

Howard has between 20 and 25 different grapes in his field up the road in Portalegre, and the precise weather conditions and timing of the harvest determine the type of wine produced.

It’s an old style which provided insurance for the winemakers by spreading the risk – if a particular year’s weather doesn’t suit one vine, it might suit another.

Pedro explained that, for example, two Portuguese white grapes have different needs: Arinto likes warmer weather, less rain and nutritious soil; but Antão Vaz likes it cooler, more damp and with fewer nutrients.

Three little piggies: Howard has a drift and a drove of pig sculptures in the winery art collection

I first heard about Portuguese field blends during last year at Stanford University courtesy of a fabulous Irishman called Stuart Coulson who we met in wine class.

(Yes, they had an MBA Dynamics of the Global Wine Industry class with the very impressive Alyssa Rapp and it was great…we even did our presentation on the wines of Alentejo!)

Stuart was a tech entrepreneur and corporate executive and is now a professor at Stanford’s d.school.

He bought the Papera Vineyard in Sonoma’s Russian River Valley and although most of his grapes are Zinfandel, he has a field blend block and has planted some Portuguese grapes.

I can’t wait to get fully focussed on our wine podcast and to learn more about all this! 

Yes, I’m still painting the guesthouse…seriously…how long does it take to paint a house?

Perhaps I should spend less “planning time” on the beach. Hmm.

Howard treated us to even more of his Reservas, some of their best vintages and special blends over an amazing dinner so we got the full range of his wines – and they’re great.

Good taste: Howard Bilton at the Folly restaurant and wine tasting room

His Folly joins the Alentejo wine route list next year and it comes highly recommended.

They try to have a wine for every course – from the vinho verde style Alvarinho starter, through the rosé, white and reds to the port-style Carcavelo.

And we loved the labels – designed by winners of his Sovereign Art Foundation children’s charity.

So hopefully our wine tasting plans are now underway and we can travel the Alentejo wineries (to start with) in Cassie the bright red Hilux…perhaps even taking Simon & Garfunkel along for the ride.

With those two in tow it might be a bit challenging to find a hotel, so next on the list is some kind of camper trailer thing we can pull along with us.

This is how the trouble starts: Siuoxsie was playing up as we Bansheed to the beach

• Join us on Insta: @vale_das_estrelas

• Follow us on Facebook: Vale das Estrelas