Altas Quintas Vinho de Talha 2023

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 When a product is particularly cheap Germans often use the expression "it's a fair price" to refer to it. 

Being a non native German speaker, the question that often invades me is : Fair to whom? To the farmer? To the winemaker? To the transport people? To me who is selling you the bottle, to the labeling team, the marketing, the pickers, and the list could go on almost without an end. Certain is just that this expression annoys me to an unimaginable extent.

The answer is quite obvious that it is fair for the customer as it gives them the feeling of saving money. This is quite common among older customers and even though I almost tend to see it as a generational thing, it still annoys me whenever a wine is described as having a fair price.

Having recently been in Portugal, I came across A Talha wine shop in Sines. Strategically located close to the Arts Centre it is a more than pleasant surprise as soon as you get in. Very discreet from the outside but a guaranteed wine world inside along with tremendously dangerous gourmet products that can surely drive you insane.

Being in the south of Portugal, I have decided to get an amphora wine (talha). Fermented in old olive oil amphoras as it is traditional in Alentejo, this Altas Quintas had an impressive freshness allied with spices, earthiness and some very discreet but decent red fruits with a slight hint of barrel aging. The 14,5% alcohol is extremely well integrated and there was not a single moment when I thought that the wine was becoming too overwhelming or even tiring as it often happens with higher volume wines.

I have definitely enjoyed it and it has granted me a good amount of satisfaction.

Going back to the theme with which I have started this post, I have paid around 30€ for this bottle that has accompanied a family meal of meat loaf filled with rapini, or rappa, as the Italians would refer to it. Was it too much? Was it a fair price? Was it a pure rip off? 

I have to confess that I do have thought twice before buying this bottle, but the almost certainty that this money would bring me a good quality wine has made me do the move and I was surely not disappointed at all. In this sense I found it more than fair. Quality does have a price. With this I do not want to imply that a quality of a wine is one to one connected to the price, but if you want to pay around 5€ for a bottle of wine, then I would risk to say that you cannot really expect much from it. 

Before finishing this post, I would like to highlight one of the most beautiful labels I have ever seen with just a simple cork circle in the middle. Simple and elegant adding some character to its content. Somehow, this is also something that you have to pay, in addition to the whole "fairness" concept that has dominated this post.


PS- As I was writing this post, a customer entered the shop and has complained that the 7€ cork that we charge was not fair at all...

 

 

17,5/20
Country: Portugal
Region: Alentejo 
Grapes: Alicante Bouschet, Aragonez
14,5%
Winemaker:  António Ventura

Website: https://altasquintas.com/loja/altas-quintas-talha-doc-2023/



 

 

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