Snow in the Douro Valley

After the foggy days we had during the last week we had a snowing hour. It was very short but intense, enough to paint all the landscape in white. It hadn’t snowed for some years here in S. João da Pesqueira, but this year it did twice. Cold temperatures are really important to ensure the natural clarity, also called “falling bright”. But we also need some more rain. Maybe the first weeks of 2009 can bring us some water!

Happy New Year!

Oscar Quevedo

Fog Over the Douro Valley - Vines Hidden Durning the Christmas Season

The vines that are closer to the Douro River are enjoining a hidden week under this beautiful fog. For a moment you can think that the river jumped out of its limits and flooded all the valley. Fortuntley it doesn’t! Port Wine is not at risk!

This fog started at the beginning of this week and is expected to disappear this week-end. I would like it doesn’t, it’s so beautiful and increases the diversity of landscape one can enjoy here.

I hope you like!

Oscar Quevedo

Do You Know Which Wines To Drink for Christmas?

Well, some of you do and some of you don’t, so for those who don’t know, I’ll try to help.

The Christmas Eve dinner is particularly special for me for several reasons: all the family is together around a table full of traditional dishes; as the time draw on, we talk about old stories. I don’t even know these folks, but we used to remember during this period of the year. There is also the miracle of Jesus and the traditional Midnight Mass (or the Rooster Mass in Portuguese!!). There is the hearth and home, with the biggest blazes of all the Winter’s nights.

And then well, we have the wines we choose for this night. These are wines we first keep in the bottle for some years, then, when you open it, you keep it in the memory, and later you remember and miss it. At our home we will start with a chilled White Port. With the first dish, the boiled codfish we will go for Quinta da Trovisca (codfish needs red!!) and with the roast turkey we will drink Quinta Vale D’Agodinho, a fruity wine and bull bodied with 15% Alc. to snuggle the turkey!!

Of course, after had eaten so much we need something to digest and that is perfect to carry on a long conversation, so lets go for a Port 10 Years Old, which goes also well with the endless Christmas deserts!

To all of you that are part of Quevedo, I wish you a merry Christmas, full of good food and good wine!

Cláudia Quevedo

Where To Go When Visiting Porto

The city of Porto is known for giving the name to Port Wine, and is like a balcony on Vila Nova de Gaia, the place where the tastings that decided the declaration of a Vintage were formerly done. It’s also in Vila Nova de Gaia where are located the cellars of the traditional companies of the sector. Porto gives name while Vila Nova de Gaia lodges the cellars.

I would like to show you some places that shouldn’t be forgotten on a two days trip to Porto and that will surprise you.

A good starting point is the Boavista area, where you can visit the most recent and modern cultural space of the city: Casa da Musica. Going down Boavista Avenue, in direction to the sea, you arrive to the Serralves Museum and Gardens. In this Museum you can find fabulous exhibitions of Portuguese and International contemporary art, you should also take the opportunity to visit its wonderful gardens. If you visit the Museum until 18th January 2009 you will have the opportunity to visit the exhibition of the Spanish sculptor Juan Muñoz, who has a sculpture expose in the old part of the city in the Cordoaria Garden.

And while you are in the downtown, how about a visit to some landmarks of the city, like Tower of Clérigos, Carmo Church, Sé Cathedral and S. João Theater (you can find all information you need in Porto Turismo website). You shouldn’t miss also a walk through Miguel Bombarda Street, where you can find a lots of art galleries to visit.

At night I suggest a walking through Galeria de Paris Street, a new meeting point of the city. This quarter is known for its cosmopolitan side, here is normal to see people from different nationalities who are working or studying in the city and want to have some fun.

The next day, and to end the visit in the best way, nothing better than an afternoon evening in the Cais de Gaia, near the traditional Port Wine cellars. It is the best place to enjoy the sunset reflected on the Douro River, together with friends and a Quevedo Port.

Bruno Pinto

Menu For Hope 2008: Port Wine Starter Kit

Christmas is just around the corner and at this time of the year we are more susceptible to charity and to help those who need. Thus, Quevedo decided to participate in the 5th Annual Menu for Hope campaign. Coordinated by top food and wine bloggers around the world, Menu for Hope charity raffle wants to help to feed school children in Lesotho. Last year this campaign raised over $90,000.

How does it works? Bloggers or those who want, create prizes and announce it in their blogs and also list in the organizers site, such as Vinography; those who want can buy virtual tickets to spend in specific prizes; in the end will be done a big drawing, some of those who buy the riffles wine the prizes and receive it at their homes while the money is sent to the farming community children in Lesotho get nutritious school lunches.

The prize that Quevedo will create is a Port Wine Starter Kit. Specially and exclusively conceived for the 5th edition of the Menu for Hope, this kit truly wants to mark your first contact with Quevedo Port Wine. And we will not get upset if you use it with other Port Wine bottles not from Quevedo! Not at all, you just have to enjoy it! This prize has the code WB17 and is composed by:

- Port Wine Tongs

- Port Wine Filter

- Port Wine Decanter

- 2 Official Port Wine Tasting Glasses

- Dark Chocolate

- since we can have some difficulties in shipping wine, but as we want you to unveil this kit with a bottle of Quevedo Port, we decided to included a coupon that is worth a bottle of our 2005 Vintage that you can change by in closest wine shop with our wine available;

Donation Instructions:

1. Choose a prize or prizes of your choice from the Menu for Hope at Vinography.

2. Go to the donation site at http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhope5 and make a donation.

3. Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice. Please specify which prize you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per prize, and please use the prize code.

For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for WB01 and 3 tickets for WB02. Please write 2xEU01, 3xEU02. Our Port Wine Starter Kit has the code WB17.

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please allow us to see your email address so that we could contact you in case you win.  Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Good luck!

Oscar Quevedo

What I Use To Read In Internet About Wines II

At the beginning of November, I wrote a post about wine related sites I like and I visit regularly in Internet. Lets continue that theme and make the II version. This time is just one site dedicated to Port Wine. Its name is ForTheLoveOfPort and probably sounds familiar to some of you. The team is composed by Roy Hersh, Stewart Todd, Andy Velebil and the recently joined David Spriggs, probably the hosts of the best forum for Port Wine lovers. The topics are mainly about Port Wine, but there is also space for Madeira Wine and for the more and more known Douro Wine.

Roy Hersh also writes a monthly newsletter for its subscribers. One of the topics of the newsletter is “A Question for the Trade”, which, as the name says, is a question from Roy or the FTLOP fun to the Port Wine Producers. For the December edition, Roy also invited Quevedo to participate, and we are very proud for this first collaboration in Roy’s newsletter. Well, I would like to suggest you to visit the web, participate in their forum and subscribe Roy’s newsletter. Especially for Port Wine lovers, the newsletter and the forum deserve to be read.

Oscar Quevedo

Quevedo Present in the Wine Tasting for the London Bloggers Christmas Meeting

The 9th of December was a different day for Quevedo, and a little bit special! During the Christmas networking meetup of the group London Bloggers, took place a wine tasting from winery bloggers for bloggers. These bloggers are from different industries, such as marketing, IT, events, photography, travel, etc. The wineries with wines for tasting were: Dinastia Vivanco, La Casa de las Vides, Fernando de Castilla and Sta. Quitéria (Spain); Weingut Clauer (Germany); Poggio Argentiera (Italy); Cortes de Cima and Quevedo (Portugal).

All this wine tasting was masterly organized by Robert McIntoch, from Wine Conversation. Quevedo was just represent by its wine, the Porto Quevedo Reserve Ruby. No one of us could attend to this meeting, though we would loved to have been there. Please check our Press Release, for more information about the tasting.

Ah, and this is the video we prepared for the tasting, made in Quinta Vale D’Agodinho, the main vineyard from Quevedo, while we were pruning the vines.

Oscar Quevedo

The First Port In Space? Quevedo, Of Course!

Some months ago, I heard that for Mário Ferreira, the man that transports most people up and down the Douro RIver (he owns Douro Azul cruises), The World is not enough. Therefore, he decided to embark in a spacecraft to travel in space, and he’ll be the first Portuguese doing it; just like a modern Gil Eanes!

I read yesterday that, differently from the Portuguese explorers, he is not planning to leave a stone evidence that he has been there. He has just had a much better idea: bring to the space a bottle of Port Wine, that first to arrive to such heights.

Here is the challenge: make Quevedo the so called flying wine. In facto, there is a number of reasons that makes logical the choice of Quevedo as the highest Port ever. I could speak about the family, the Quintas, the terroir, the taste, the nose, the colour, the perfume… I could write about all that, but I’d be just inventing excuses.

Quevedo will be the first because a wine that conquers France and Belgium and that is about to delight London, deserves the space conquer. Dear Mário, the bottle is on its way!

A hug,

Pedro

CaipiRoyal, A Port Cocktail From A Port Wine Producer - Is Cocktail The Future of Port?

In recent years, Port Wine producers have been finding new and ingenious ways to sell their wines, keeping the R&D departments on their toes. First, Croft launched their Pink version of a Port Wine in the beginning of 2008. Two weeks ago, while Quevedo was participating in the Porto & Douro Wine Show, in Lisbon, I visited the Real Companhia Velha presenting their latest innovation: the CaipiRoyal. It was the first time I had heard of the CaipiRoyal, though it had been in the market for approximately a year now. Marketed as the Portuguese version of the Brazilian Caipirinha and branding it as Royal Oporto, the company suggests the following ingredients to create this cocktail: extra dry white port, crushed ice, lime and fruit juice such as strawberry, pineapple or lemon.

Not suprisingly, their stand was continually full of people milling with curious stares and outreached hands. And upon first taste of the free CaipiRoyal, satisfied grins left the table sharing their discovery with others. Consequently, I had to try it, and I must confess, I liked it. It is very sweet, easy to drink and fresh. Would I drink it in a bar? Yes, I would!

Portugal and Brazil are CaipiRoyal’s main target markets. Real Companhia Velha has been presenting the cocktail in several restaurants/bars in Porto, Lisbon and in Algarve; focusing on countries where the original caipirinha is best known, while keeping away from more traditional Port Wine markets like United Kingdom. Indeed, in the English version of the web page, information on the CaipiRoyal can just be found in the news section, while in the Portuguese version there is a tab listed on the main page titled Caipi Royal.

I do not know if Quevedo will ever have its own version of Caipirinha. But what is indisputable is that Port producers are struggling hard to get the attention of younger consumers with lighter, easy-drinking and trendy versions of Port.

After Croft and Real Companhia Velha, who will be the next?

Oscar Quevedo

6 Things You Don’t Know About Oscar Quevedo

I was recently tagged in an internet meme from Catavino, in which I had to write 6 things people would not know about me. I used to receive email memes in which someone would tell me that if I forwarded the message to some of my contacts I would receive a postcard, a call from a forgotten friend or something special. I usually delete these emails but as this post meme comes from Gabriella and Ryan Opaz and I do not want to break the chain, so I decided to follow the game. Moreover, I am eager to tag 6 more people to continue this meme!!

Lost in the Beach - Speaking German?

My parents use to go to the south of Portugal, to Algarve, during the summer for a two-week vacation on the beach. I was 2 years old and while I was playing in the sand with another fellow of my age, our huge castle of sand needed more water so I got up, took the bucket and went to the water. Then, after grabbing some water, in my way back to the “castle” I missed the track.. I was lost. My parents started to look for me immediately, each one to a different direction of the beach. They walked and walked but nothing. Each of them thought the other had found me and therefore they went back to the “castle”. Well, none of them found me. Several minutes later, a tall, strong and blond German (blond like me!!) had a kid on his shoulder, walking in the beach and waiting for someone to claim for the castle builder, I mean, me!!

My granddad is 93!!

Yes, and I am very proud of him. He goes to the vineyards and to the winery every day; still coordinating the employees; demanding and always active, my Avô Joao loves to drink a glass of Port after lunch (though the doctor - my mum - had forbade it to him some years ago due to a heart attack)!!

Farming my own vegetable garden

I’ve always been very close to the nature and to the land. One day, when I was 14 years old, I visited the vegetable garden of one of our employees, Sr. Joao. His garden was full of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, lettuces and much much more. I saw it so beautiful that when I got home I said to my parents that I wanted to grow a vegetable garden. I imagined it in the back of our house, where I used to play soccer with my friends. I asked one of the employees to come with a tractor to work the land, and Sr. Joao helped me to plant the vegetables and taught me how to irrigate them correctly. Well, very busy but wonderful time. Ah, how did I get revenues to compensate the initial investment (tractor, Sr. Joao’s work, seeds, water pump, etc)? I made an agreement with my mum and she would buy me all the vegetables she needd for the kitchen!! And at the end of the campaign I had some more money in my pocket!

Wine & Finance

I do not know if wine and finance combine; do winemakers get good returns for their investments? And do investors know to differentiate good and bad wine? Well, I love wine and I love finance. I started my career in Asset Management and then Private Banking and I loved it. What you probably do not know is that i was 13 when I first invested my money in the equities. At that time I had to go to a bank desk to give the buy and sell orders.

Soccer with broken foot

I love to play soccer and I am unconditional fan of FC Porto. During three years I played as a goal-keeper in the young team of my village. Before that, I used to play in a square, in front of my grandparents house, with all my colleagues from school. One day, when I was playing with my cousins and sister, I broke my left foot. As expected, my mama forbade me to play soccer. But one day I couldn’t resit it and after school I joined my team!! I do not remember if my team won but I think my mum does not know about this!!!

I love Francesinha

Francesinha is a typical dish from Porto. It is made with pan loaf, cheese, meet, sausage, ham and at the top a delicious sauce, almost secret! I eat it every single time I visit Porto! And to find the best places I ask my friend Jose Luis, he always guides me!

Who will I tag:

Blog de Laranja - André Ribeirinho, who runs this blog, is also co founder of adegga, a social wine discover. As an entrepreneur by himself he must have some nice stories worth to know.

For the love of Port - In a blog of a Port wine producer we must tag someone who loves Port as much as we do. I would love to hear from one of the leading Port Wine authorities, Roy Hersh.

The Wine Sleuth - Denise Medrano, an American wine lover living in London, told me she loved Warre’s Optima 10 Years Old Tawny, a Port from the Symington family. Lets hear more from her!

Copo de 3 - I have recently met Joao Pedro in a wine tasting. But we almost had no time to talk. It is time to hear some more from him!

Wine Conversation - This active and energetic blogger, fan of Rioja wines and always trying to promote the wine, is someone I would like to know much better. Do you want to start Robert McIntosh?

Wijnkronieken - Is a Dutch wine blog ran by Mariëlla and Nico. They use to write in Dutch so I have to use a translator program to read their posts. I hope this time they wright in English!!

Until my next post,

Oscar Quevedo

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