Thursday, September 3rd - More Alentejo

No rush this morning so we didn't actually get into our car in the underground hotel parking garage until around 10:30. The only appointment we have today is a 15:00 wine tour/tasting in english at Herdade do Esporão located southeast of Évora near Reguengos de Monsaraz. Only about a 45 minute drive from our hotel.

On the way the countryside was the usual rolling hills, yellow grasses, olive groves and another pair of gypsies riding a horse and buggy.

We decided to head for Monsaraz first. A very striking location high over the surrounding countryside with a castle at its edge. The old town is surrounded by castle walls so pretty cool. At one time the Knights Templar owned the town/castle. You need to park your cars outside of the walled village and walk in through an arched entrance.

We found good parking close to the main entrance. Another day where there is not a lot of tourists or cars. I quickly find a public washroom - very good of the town to have this available. There are not a lot of tourist sights to see in this very small town. As is Lana's practice she purchases a candle in the church (0.50Euro) for a blessing even though she's not Catholic. We loved climbing the stairs of the walls of the castle for more views. Eventually, we got hungry. One place we wanted to eat at decided not to open. In our guide book, Café Restaurante Lumumba, was given a good review so that is where we will eat. Many restaurants in this town don't open until 12:30.

View of the town from a castle wall. The views of the flat plains are outstanding.

 Cemetery just below the castle walls.

 View eastward from the castle walls. This water area is a result of a dam. Across the water is basically Spain (Espanha).

 View towards the castle from one of the small streets. All white-washed buildings.

 How narrow are some of their streets?

 Lana found this real estate advertisement close to the entrance. She was interested in the layout of this residence.

 Example of one of their very old residence doors.

 Another interesting residence door.

 Not hard to find anything in Monsaraz, so we showed up at the Lumumba restaurant around 12:45. The guide book talked about the fact that locals hang out and eat here. Usually, this is a good indicator of decent food. Yes, the food was good and the service was decent as well. No menu in english and our server really only could translate a few of the entrees. No problem as we quickly confirm our order with a large carbonated bottle of water. We are sitting outdoor on their patio out back and soaking in the views and the gentle breezes.

Lana's order of Lamb soup. It comes in two dishes. This dish has the lamb and the potatoes and some pieces of some kind of internal organ!!

 Lana's second dish of the actual soup broth and chunks of bread floating on top of the soup broth. Lana is trying to avoid eating too much wheat so passes on eating the bread with her lamb soup and has only the broth. Very tasty.

 Randy' order of pork ribs (Entrecôte) with fries, rice and a salad. My pork was delicious and tender. The fries were OK and Lana ate my rice.

Throughout this village are photos taken by Miguel Claro for his "Photos Dark Sky Alqueva" project. Check out this link for amazing pictures.

We want to get to the area known as Reguengos de Monsaraz which has at least five wineries, inclusive of Herdade do Esporão. The other winery recommended by Tiago wasn't doing any visits as they were all busy with the grape harvest. We drove to two other wineries with no luck. The smaller wineries we guess have everyone working at the grape harvest.

Our GPS unit works with the GPS coordinates from our excellent wine map of the Alentejo. Once we leave the main road it is about five minutes of driving before we actually got to Herdade do Esporão. Their acreage is astounding. Their winery is another example of a rich investor really going first class on everything! We have encountered these visionary rich patrons really spending the money. We arrived about 15 minutes early. By the time the tour began there were four couples and three children. Our guide was pretty good although I couldn't figure out how to spell or pronounce her name.  :-(

My notes:

• 400 hectares of grapes planted (huge!) and mostly organic. Plus a sizeable olive grove where the olive oil is made in another location.
• An artificial lake (which they made) lies below the winery and is used to provide water in the dry times. Their irrigation is the drip system like other wineries. Out of 365 days last year only 65 days had any hint of rain.
• Vineyards are planted by squares relative to specific grape varieties.
• 70-80% of the grapes are hand-picked
• Grape harvesting began early this year on August 3rd
• 300 employees year round
• Will produce 11 million litres of wine this year
• Over 50% of their wine is exported and mostly goes to Angola, USA and Brazil
• Partially smash grape first
• 5-6 days fermentation in temp controlled steel tanks
• Then onto the automatic stomp machine, then filtered and then to the barrels or bottled (cheaper stuff)
• Expensive grapes that are felt to be special will be stomped by people for up to 10 days (special years and top grapes)
• Blending of the wine occurs in huge steel tanks
• Their area and machines for bottling was huge! They can bottle up to 10,000 bottles per hour. 
• Interesting visit to their cellar which is 30 metres below ground. The first big year of wine production was 1985 and they have some bottles. The cellar is used for aging the wine in bottles.
• Steel tanks used for aging wine and inside the steel is wood.
• Barrel room was vast. Each barrel has a computer label. Lana was smelling the oak barrels and coming up with vanilla and other scents. 
• Change their labels each year. An artist will come up with new labels.

 Grapes just harvested and ready to be de-stemmed through their machinery.

 These tanks will be used for blending. Notice they are outside and how big they are based on the worker at the bottom of the picture. 

 Ancient Roman technique for making wine. Dump the stomped grapes in here and eventually take out the solids that rise to the surface and simply leave the wine to ferment on its own. These are the clay vessels used for this ancient technique. Very occasionally use these and don't sell this wine. OK, you caught me with my pen and note pad = you didn't think my memory was good enough for all our wine tour details?  :-)

The tour lasted about 50 minutes and was very interesting. I asked how they get the corks in the bottles. As expected, the corks are smaller when inserted. After exposure in the bottle and to the liquid they expand ceiling the bottle. Also, keeping the aging bottled wine horizontal is necessary to ensure the cork doesn't shrink thus allowing air into the bottle (oxidation). The cork shrinks in the absence of liquid. 

Our wine tasting was a white wine and a red wine. They were medium priced wines. Neither wine was of interest to us though. I asked for a taste of their two best red wines for comparison. I tasted a 2012 and 2011 Reserva. Both were excellent, but we bought the 2011. This was one of the best wine years in the Alentejo and Douro.

I drove back to Évora as we really didn't have much wine to drink this afternoon. It was very hot in our town. Lana decided to walk to one of the tourist sights we were at on Monday to consider purchasing some gifts. Stopped at a bakery and bought a flan for dessert for later.  :-)

Our dinner destination is Vinho e Nóz. Recommended by Italo (Brazilian we were beside on Monday night at dinner) and is one of the top rated by Trip Advisor. It opens at 19:00 and we decide to walk there and arrive a little early. We do arrive five minutes early and they accept us. Brick interior, simple furnishings, in business for 30 years, family run, open space, huge menu and wine menu, background music is english songs (as usual) and we get a table in the corner as the first guests. 

Ricardo is our server and speaks good english. We order two starters and one entree. Our meal is excellent. In addition, I choose a 0.375Litre bottle of red wine (1/2 bottle not uncommon in Europe) = Marquês de Borba 2013 for 5.50Euro. Very good and great pairing with our steak. Lana ordered a glass of Muscatel de Sétubal for 3Euro (Special Reserve aged in oak barrels) and a delicious aperitif. 

Restaurant menu.

 Presunto Pata Negra (smoked black pork ham) with a sweet, nutty taste. It has spoiled us for prosciutto.

 Queijo Assado (melted cheese) that has a crispiness, warm, tasty and some olive oil and oregano in the cheese. Another hit!

 Our order of Bife do Lombo (Stone Steak). This restaurant is known for this dish.

 It comes to our table with seasoning and that is it. The hot slab of marble will cook our steak. Some of you may remember many years ago, there was a restaurant in Marinaside (opposite False Creek) that was specializing in 'hot stone cooking'. We don't think it lasted long unfortunately but somehow the concept is alive and well here in Portugal.

 Finished version after we flipped it for 3 minutes on each side. Perfectly grilled by Lana who set the timer on her iPhone--afterall, you don't want to overcook a steak this this one. Wow! This was a fantastic steak and we can see why the restaurant is famous for this dish. Lana here--this steak was melt in your mouth tender, meaty and had a very rich beef taste.  Haven't had a steak like this in a long time. The steak wasn't overly huge (we ordered the striploin cut) but due to the richness it was perfect for the two of us to share. The accompanying two sauces you see in the upper corners of the picture were also delicious--the one on the left was flavoured with a touch of balsamic vinegar would be my guess. The one on the right was herb and garlic. Both were excellent as we dipped fries AND pieces of steak.

 Lana wanted vegetables to go with the steak.

 This Muscatel fortified wine was so incredible that we talked our server into selling us a bottle. We weren't sure if we would be able to find the bottle anywhere else. They charged us 20Euro for the bottle. It was 3Euro for a small drink. We don't think they get many people asking to buy a bottle of any wine they serve. We will treasure this aperitif and add to our collection. We now have only one official 'slot' for wine before we head to Vancouver.

We had such a great meal inclusive of food, service and ambience. Walking home in the dark, but another beautiful cool night. We enjoyed a flan with caramel to end our evening in our room. Walking today totalled 7.5kms. For our final day in the Alentejo tomorrow we have only one more spot open for a bottle of wine.  :-(