The essence of Aljezur
Warm and sunny in the mornings and often damp and breezy in the afternoons, the Algarve’s west coast boasts a unique microclimate.
Along its rugged clifftops and undulating terrain, wild cistus, tragacanth, and mastic trees extend as far as the eye can see.
Dotted with hamlets and whitewashed villages, this landscape is also occasionally interrupted by small, ancient vineyards. This is where, serendipitously, Italian winemaker Filippo Pozzi has been making his Atlas Land wines for the past five years.
Hailing from Lake Como in the Piedmont region, the free-spirited Italian is breathing new life into forgotten vineyards close to the sea and on the rugged slopes of Aljezur.
Following a classical winemaking education at the University of Bordeaux, Filippo gained experience at prestigious wineries in Pauillac (France) and Napa Valley (USA) whilst cultivating a distinct and creative winemaking philosophy he would later apply in Portugal.
“Searching for vineyards close to the sea, I stumbled upon this place rather randomly and never left. It was the end of 2019, just when COVID was about to start,” recalls Filippo, who, thanks to a chance encounter, was offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“I was told a Swiss guy was making wine here and that I had to see him. He invited me over for a drink. We stayed here for hours just talking about life, and at the end, he said, ‘You can bring all your stuff and make wine here’.” This was George, a Swiss mechanical engineer turned winemaker, who built his cellar in the middle of the countryside.
To make his singular wines, he cultivates grapes in small vineyards around Aljezur that belong to local farmers, some benefiting from the ocean breeze and others from the freshness found in the altitude of the Monchique slopes.
As for grape varieties, Filippo explains: “The youngest vineyard I farm is 37 years old, and the oldest is around 100. They’re all field blends of Portuguese grape varieties.” The whites include Boal, Sercial, and Síria, and the reds are mostly Castelão and Bastardo. “And some other things that even the people who planted them don’t know what they are,” admits the winemaker.
With his small vineyards, he produces just shy of 10,000 bottles per year. “I farm about 3.2 hectares now, spread across six different parcels. But some vineyards are super old. They are of very good quality, but they don’t produce much. And I’m alone, doing everything.”
His wines are a pure expression of Aljezur’s varying terroirs – “like my personality, so very easy,” jokes Filippo. “You can call them natural because we don’t add anything, but I’m also very technical because I have very classic training.”
He usually does two releases. “The first wines are released in the summer, and in the following spring, the ones that have been aged for at least two winters, possibly three.”
The region’s ever-changing weather conditions bestow upon his wines their distinctive and varying characters, which differ each year, like their labels painted by Filippo’s artist sister.
His two entry-level wines are a white and a red made from the same vineyard. The Zig Zag ’23 (€20), jokingly named after the way one walks after drinking too much wine, is made with grapes from a vineyard planted in 1990 on a gentle north-facing slope, situated 3km from the ocean on sandy soil.
This is a palhete, a light-bodied, ruby-coloured wine with good concentration and deliciously fresh notes of strawberries.
It is a field blend of red and white grapes consisting of Boal, Sercial, Síria, Castelão and Bastardo. According to Filippo, it is a classic representation of Aljezur: “It has sun but also freshness. It’s an easy wine, easy to pair, and great for the summer.”
The Capovolto ’23 (€20), which in Italian means ‘flipped’ or ‘upside down’, is the white version of the Zig Zag, only made differently and with grapes harvested 10 days later, at the end of September.
“For me, the whites are all about texture,” says the winemaker, who achieves a viscous and creamy smoothness by leaving the wine on the lees for the first couple of years – a technique that enhances the wine’s complexity and texture. Partially aged in large 500-litre oak vats, the Capovolto is a denser and more concentrated wine than the Zig Zag, presenting both a peachy robe and aroma.
Although he mainly produces field blends, every year, he makes a single varietal Castelão, the Outra Forma (€27).
This year, this young wine, made during a particularly foggy and humid year, reveals great acidity and notes of tart cherry.
“In concentration, it’s up a notch from [the palhete],” notes Filippo, “because it’s [made with grapes from] a similar vineyard located in a similar geographical area, but the soil composition changes significantly.”
Anjo (€47), his second white, is a tribute to his grandfather. This deliciously dense and smooth wine with notes of honey is the winemaker’s pride: “It’s my old vineyard, and it’s super small: 3,000 square metres. I made around 800 bottles of this and only produced it two years out of the five. It has been aged for two years in 500-litre barrels and is truly special.”
“These are the wines I enjoy now,” he says of smoother white wines. “Before, I was accustomed to much more acidic wines, but this is what I like now.” Wines in which you can taste the Aljezur sun.
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