Amphora Natural Wine is a type of wine produced in a handcrafted large clay pots. It dates back to the origin of the Wine - when 8000 years ago the first tests on how to transform grapes into the nectar of the Gods began - and is a technique brought to Europe by the Romans in the 1st Century. Since then it has been part of the National Cultural Heritage of Portugal, keeping this tradition alive through the popular knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation in Alentejo.

The essentials of vinification in carving have changed little in more than two thousand years. In general, the previously crushed grapes are placed inside the clay halls and fermentation occurs spontaneously without the addition of any kind of products. During fermentation, the skins of grapes that rise to the surface and form a solid layer are stirred with a wooden squeegee and forced to plunge into the must, in order to give the wine more colour, aromas and flavours. Once the fermentation is over, these masses settle on the bottom and the wine is ready to drink. The process takes between 8 to 10 weeks. See here a small clip of the whole process.

In Portugal there is no legislation defining this concept. Thus, there are several different interpretations of what should be considered a natural wine. The general concept common to all interpretations defines a Natural Wine as one that has the minimum intervention of Man in its production, and attributes the process mainly to Nature: the sugar present in the grapes is fermented until it is transformed into alcohol and the grape juice consequently transformed into wine.

The mission of Honrado Vineyards is to combine the concepts described above through the use of an artisanal production technique associated with clay pots (amphoras) and with the minimum possible intervention of Man, thus originating our Amphora Natural Wines . More concretely, our harvest is done by hand, the yeasts fully indigenous (existing in the grapes in a natural way), our wines have no addition of nutrients, flavors or other compounds, and do not suffer industrial filtrations.

During production no chemical compounds of any kind are added to the wine. At bottling, it is necessary to use some stabilisers in order to keep the wine stable inside the bottle. We use the table of potassium metabisulphite (sulphite) values authorised by the Portuguese Institute of Wine in Biological wines as a reference, which guarantees that we keep these values very low.

You can purchase your bottles of Amphora Natural Wine in the Online Shop on this site. We have at your disposal the most varied methods of payment and the shipping costs are always at our expense. If you wish, you can also place your order through 351 911 524 478 (phone or whatsapp).