After a decade of research, Paul White has released his new book Talha Tales: Portugal’s Ancient Answer to Amphora Wines.
The book chronicles the near extinction and subsequent resurrection of the world’s only continuously surviving Roman terracotta pot winemaking tradition. Although talha maintain a very pure, ancient process, White argues that “they are essentially the newest, most complete, self-contained, winemaking technology in the modern wine world making some of the most innovative new wine styles on the planet”.
“If you haven’t tried these wines, they aren’t ‘orange’ or ‘natural,’ although there can be some positive overlaps,” he adds. “What they come closest to are something between barrel fermented wines that lack oak’s intrusive flavors, aromas and tannins and grape-intense stainless steel wines, but without the hard edges.”
“I have been following these wine styles closely since before 2010 and wrote the first comprehensive article on talha wines in World of Fine Wine back in 2015, which has become a reference of sorts. This was followed by a second updated, article last year. These articles, and dozens of visits, interviews and tastings, formed the seeds for the book.”
Talha Tales: Portugal’s Ancient Answer to Amphora Wines is just under 200 pages filled with biographies of producers, a comprehensive tasting of talha wines going back to 1940, the uniquely pure-European, autochthonous grapes and mixed old vine vineyards associated with them, a bit of wine tourism, a chunk of archaeology and a wee touch of conflict for good measure.
The book is being released in ebook, soft and hard bound formats on 1st December.
CWW members can contact Paul directly on [email protected] if interested in reviewing or need a link for purchasing after launch.