The Alicante Bouschet grape variety
Alicante Bouschet is a red grape variety from the vitis vinifera family resulting from the crossing of the Grenache and Petit Bouschet grapes.
Portugal’s most Portuguese foreign red grape variety, it is of French origin (Languedoc), created by Henry Bouschet, between 1865 and 1885, from the crossing of the aforementioned grapes. It produces intense wines with a rich color.
Alicante Bouschet is one of the main grape varieties in Já Te Disse wines.
From the 1,204 vines planted with this grape variety in our micro-production in Estremoz, two wines are born: Já Te Disse Edition Spéciale 100% Alicante Bouschet; and Já Te Disse Tinto, a blend which, in addition to 30% Alicante Bouschet, also includes 40% Petit Verdot and 30% Syrah.
Long adapted to the Alentejo, where vines are over 100 years old, it is increasingly used for red wines from the north to the south of Portugal. Used with other grape varieties, it adds volume, structure and enormous ageing potential to wines.
It tolerates hot climates well, with more hours of sunshine and late-ripening grapes. The timing of the harvest is crucial to achieve complete phenolic ripeness of the berries, avoiding vegetal notes and bitter tannins in the wine.
In the Já Te Disse vineyard, we weed more than 50% of the total production, weeks before the harvest, to guarantee bunches of this high quality grape variety.
One of its particularities is the color of the pulp and juice, as you can see from the crushed berries in the sure hands of one of our harvesters, a characteristic for which it is also known as a red grape variety.