One of the most interesting moments of Vindouro is the Port Wine auction. This year Quevedo sent a bottle of our recently launched Quevedo Colheita 1992. Besides our Port, only three more bottles out of 16 were still on the market. All the rest were Ports never commercialized or sold out. The prices were generally high and the buyers were almost all local. It probably shows that there was an emotional interest in some of the bottles regardless its price. Here is the list of the Ports at auction and the respective prices:

The harvest is now starting and during this time of the year, as expected, we have more people around visiting the Douro. One of the very last were Ema and Nuno from Magna Casta, a Portuguese wine blog. We could not talk very long, but hopefully they will come back soon!

Oscar

I have been spending this week making wine tastings in different places of the country. It is my first time in Denmark and I am having a great time. The interesting part of the trip occurred yesterday in Oksbøl (a small town in the West of Denmark), where took place a wine tasting of American and Port wines for the members of the local wine club.

There were 100 hundred people at the room when I challenged them to pronounce my last name, Quevedo, loud with lot of emotion.  You can´t imagine how happy I felt when I hear them pronouncing it correctly. Yes, Quevedo can! I was almost in tears. Here is the video made by Elizabeth Rice of DFV Wines.

Dan, the very nice manager of the local supermarket Super Brugsen, gave a bottle of our White Port for the person who could better pronounce Quevedo. I´ll soon post his photo. I got it, here is the photo of Karsten Hjorth Soerensen.

Thank you Dan and Colin (Head of West Denmark Tourism) for organizing of the tasting.

Oscar

At 4.30 p.m. we were quite done with our tourism experience (the sun, though hidden behind the cloud burned our faces) and we decided to visit a wine shop. There, we had a great and new experience that I want to share with you. The place was called the Press Club, and it’s a wine shop and tasting place only for Californian wines in the heart of downtown San Francisco. At the entrance you’d find the common shelves with all the different Californian wines and some complements like Moleskine notebooks, fancy decanters etc.. All this you could find it anywhere else in the world, but the interesting part started when we went downstairs. There, we encountered a variety of spaces beautifully designed and perfectly paired. On one side, 8 wineries had its own bar where they offered a tasting of their wines. On the other side, there were four spaces and a private salon to enjoy a taste with some friends or business colleagues. Crowned in the middle, there was a bar with benches to enjoy a quicker, but not-less tasteful glass of Californian wine.

Going back to the marketing effort of the Californian wineries presented in the previous posts, here it is another example: the wineries have permanently an employee in the tasting room, who sometimes is winemaker or at least has an important role in the production of the wine. For the wine shop, besides having the people of the winery giving information about the wines, it’s a great deal because they share the renting costs of the space. Do you know any similar partnership in Europe?

We got there expecting a common wine shop but we ended enjoying a complete taste of wines and great cheeses. First, we tasted a Mount Eden, Chardonnay 2004 from Santa Cruz with a creamy and smooth cheese. Then a Pinot Noir 2006 from Lost Canyon, Russian River with a soft goat cheese (my favorite). And finally a Cabernet 2005 from Chateau Montelena, Napa with a aged Jersey cheese. I must admit, this was the first time in my life I appreciated the combination of a wine and a cheese in its full expression: I’ve had great wines and great cheeses but never so perfectly combined. I strongly recommend you to experiment your favorite wines and cheeses until you find the “perfect” match. But if you, like me, still don’t know much about it… follow the expert’s suggestions!

We didn’t expect to have such a great time but it was an amazing experience! If you ever get to go there, talk to George Blanckensee, the very kind General Manager and tell us what do you think! We will think about this concept once we get back home. Maybe we could think about something similar for Port wines?

Nadia Adria

From Porto departed 20 Douro lovers for a weekend of good friends, good food, good wine and many laughs. And this time we didn’t only dive in the river (we didn’t miss the Côa!) but also in the prehistory that vibrates in Foz-Côa: we visited the Paleolithic carvings of the Côa valley, drawings of aurochs, horses and wild goats older than 20000 years.

We went to 2 out of the 3 visitable spots, the Canada do Inferno and the Penascosa; we only missed Ribeira de Piscos, but that’s a nice excuse to come back. Perhaps when the Côa Museum opens its doors, by the end of 2009.

Some weeks later, I kept in my heart the joy of seeing how an Archaeological Park, based upon such a remote past, can be the seed of the rebirth of the Alto Douro, side by side with the good Wine, Almond and Olive Oil that that land offers to the ones that love them.

We will be back!

Pedro Pardinhas

Some weeks ago, Fernando João, my brother-in-law, turned on his laptop and identified a free wireless Internet access. Since at our place we do not have any rooter to spread Internet through the house, we thought it could come from a neighbour’s. When we were connected to it, a new window pop-up. It was a message from the City Hall inviting us to use the Internet connection for free for half a hour. At the end of this trial period if we wanted to continue using it, we just had to go to the City Hall and ask for a user ID and a password. Cheap, easy and HUGELY useful.

S. João da Pesqueira, a small spot in the middle of Portugal, a country where everything needs more time to occur, has free wireless Internet in the center of the village. Thank you mayor, Mr. Lima Costa, and all your crew.

Do you know any other wireless Internet town?

Oscar Quevedo

Related articles by Zemanta

• Internet For Everyone (takepart.com)
• Drink port at the source (gadling.com)
• 20 Ways to Engage Contacts in Social Media (kylelacy.com)

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

Now, a few months after I dived in Port (and I have positively dived in it, believe me), I started seeing and drinking it as a part of my life, drinking it before dinner, on the rocks, or with peanuts, on a Saturday afternoon, or with some friends, in the evening, at the Galerias de Paris, the heart of Porto’s night life, where many friends prefer vodkas-orange and whiskys-cola.

I’ve just noticed how, for me, only Port is tasty by itself, but I believe that it may also do well in a cocktail. Good challenge, to find what goes well with Port: Miguel Esteves Cardoso suggested pineapple…one must try it out! If you taste it, let us know.

Back to the subject, with what does Port match, I heard of combinations with music and with food, and I believe that there are many more with landscapes, books, journeys and seasons of the year. With such amount and quality of pairings, I feel that they are only one: Port pairs with Life. Ours!

Pedro Pardinhas

The book’s title is “Diário Douro” ["Douro Diary"] and is made of Miguel Torga’s words [Miguel Torga is my favourite writer, born in and passionate for the Douro valley], words that speak about the Douro’s people, genuine and good people that made the Douro that Torga loved and we like a lot. And between the words, amazing black-and-white photographs.

To be honest, as the helicopter that I dream about every time I go there, this book took me to Pesqueira without the usual car-sickness. By the way, an advice: enjoy the river by train or boat and feel the rythm the taste the perfume of that landscape of stone made wine. Jump at Ferradosa’s train station, close to Quinta Vale D’Agodinho, and there may be a Quevedo passing by to pick you up. Call them!

Next week I wiil write about the organic and biological trend, whuch seams to have arrived to Quevedo. I’m glad it has.

See you. A hug, Pedro

a Baixa do Porto

The Miguel Bombarda Street, in the center of city of Porto, is known by its high concentration of art galleries. Gradually, during last decade, houses and old shops were remodeled into areas dedicated to the art. But just lately some effort has been put in the promotion and  advertising of this space. A sign of those changes comes by the hand of the City Hall, allocating the reconstruction of the street. The works have already begun, including the transformation of part of the street into a pedestrian crossing.

Some new exhibitions  have been inaugurated and in order to increase their impact on the public, all the galleries organized and synchronized their exhibitions calendars, which they change every two months. It has been such a great success that these exhibitions are standing out in the daily culture of the city. There are new shows, street activities, all surrounded by a nice and fun atmosphere. To support the promotion of these activities, there are two sponsors: Porto Lazer and the whisky producer The Famous Grouse, associating their brands with the most cosmopolitan side of the city.

Wouldn’t this be an excellent opportunity to promote the Port Wine in the city which has its name? At least because Miguel Bombarda Street is very close from the Solar do Vinho do Porto and also from the Museu do Vinho do Porto. Indeed, considering all the impact that these exhibitions  have on tourists and on young adults of the city, potential Port Wine consumers, this would be an excellent opportunity to promote the wines between them.

I think it would make sense that the Instituto do Vinho do Douro e Porto supported these street activities, where the relationship between the consumer and the Port could be enhanced. Port Wine would be associated to the art, nice moments, young people and tourists.

I hope soon Porto, city and spirit, find each other again for a perfect port and art pairing.

Bruno Pinto

We started the trip in Cubelles, a nice seaside town 50 minutes south of Barcelona. We decided to get in through the “south door” of the park, this is through Sitges – another seaside town also at the south of Barcelona but much bigger then Cubelles.

Vines in the Parque Natural del Garraf

After leaving Sitges behind, the road was overland. I was tired because the road was so bad (and in addition I was in the back seat), the car was hard and the heat was stifling. I was almost feeling asleep. Up to this point, everything was ok, a simple vacations’ trip. But does this have anything to do with wines? In fact, Yes. Suddenly I saw vines and my heart started beating fast again! There were these surprising vines, growing white grapes from a varietal I could not identify. The grapes were not ripped yet; they had a fresh green skin and a quite tough berry. I could imagine the harvest was still far away, maybe early October. At that time we must had completed the vintage in Quinta Vale D’Agodinho and in Quinta da Trovisca. We must be finishing the harvest in Quinta da Sra. do Rosário, it is always the last one!

It was a big surprise when we discovered this acre of vineyards in the middle of the natural park full of beautiful vines! Between pines and bushes and in the dryness of an austere summer, half a dozen miles away from the Mediterranean Sea, a white wine I would taste one day was growing up! It will not be easy because I could not find any vine-grower from the Penedès DO which had vines in the middle of the Natural Park of Garraf but I’ll keep searching! Until I find it, It will stay in my memory as my 2008 summer crush.

Óscar Quevedo