Sarah Ahmed reviews Talha Tales: Portugal’s Ancient Answer to Amphora Wines by Dr Paul James White and Jennifer Mortimer.
The Doctor (of Doctor Who) is a time traveler with an insatiable appetite for adventure, as is Dr Paul James White, albeit one bound to the earth, especially fired earth. “Bouncing around the globe, discovering new stuff about wine wherever I can find it,” White reflects, “looking back over the last couple of decades, the two most exciting things I’ve encountered are Terracotta made wines … and the great unspoiled wines of Portugal.” Published last year, Talha Tales: Portugal’s Ancient Answer to Amphora Wines celebrates both, building on the author’s seminal 2015 and follow-up 2021 articles on Alentejo’s clay-pot winemakers (WFW 49 and 74).
Reminiscent of a school textbook in format, Talha Tales is no coffee-table tome, but it is far from dry. Rather, one feels privy to White’s journey, his stream of consciousness even, as he endeavors to piece together talha’s shattered history from shards of physical evidence (from the ancient Roman ruins of São Cucufate, to DNA studies) and (predominantly) engaging personal recollections and intergenerational stories.
We follow White from the outset of his Talha Tales adventure in 2014, when he pulls apart “a clattering string of anti-fly beads” to experience his first, bewitching taste of talha wine at Senhor Gato’s tasca (a small café-cum-wine bar). Palpable, his excitement leaps off the page when, “just hours before going to press,” a breakthrough revelation plugs a “yawning gap” in evidence
This Article was originally published on World of Fine Wine
