Amphora Day – the joy of clay

Tapping the amphora at Rocim

Baked-earth winemaking worldwide, celebrated.

It seemed strange to call this event Amphora Day rather than Talha Day when it was held in Vidigueira, the most temperate of the Alentejo subregions in southern Portugal and hotspot for the revived tradition of making wines in talha, the local name for the clay pots used for fermentation and sometimes for ageing wine. But perhaps it was the best way of signalling that, even though the majority of the 40 or so wine producers pouring their wines were local, it was an international event, like its inspiration and Italian precursor, the biennial Terracotta...