Oscar

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• Port beyond a digestive

Three years after making the first contacts to have our wines and Ports available in New York, we found Washington Square Wines to represent us. Jeffrey Ghi and Subir Grewal, the owners of the company founded last year, are passionate about Port and wine in general. When you put passion on what you do, the results sooner or later show up and they are actually making an outstanding job, fighting like gladiators in the overcrowded and hiper competitive NYC wine market.

One of the most recent missions accomplished was to get our LBV Port in Café China, a Michelin starred restaurant. In case you don’t have the opportunity to visit the restaurant soon and see with your eyes, we have a report from Sinovision, a TV station for Chinese people in America, talking about some of the wines the restaurant is carrying. One of the wines featured is our 2006 LBV Port, with valuable food suggestions for Chinese food lovers.

Thank you Jeff and Subir!

Oscar

Related articles

• Port beyond a digestive

What you will read next is probably the best ever recipe for a Rosé Port cocktail. The first and only time I tried this cocktail was in Salt Lake City, two weeks ago, on a hot Summer evening, right before starting what we think was the first ever Port Wine tasting, with winemaker present, in Utah. By the way, this somehow far state in the west of the US is a great place, beautiful landscape and really nice people. Put in on your places to visit next time you travel to the US.

Try it at home, even if you are not able to add the CO2 and leave your comments. Other Rose Port cocktails available at C. da Silva – Dalva Port.

Few days before the harvest start and with the whole crew busy preparing the winery for receiving the upcoming grapes, I was traveling to the north of Europe to visit our clients. Of course my dad and my sister did not find this very fun, but for me was important and I could not postpone this trip. And it actually was, as tastings were organized by our clients to show the wines to their customers.

Finland, which I visited for the first time, surprised me for all the smiles I saw on people’s face. Finish people are very kind and extremely nice, making you feel at home. And that was how I really felt all the three days I was there, between tastings, saunas and dives to the lake. And the food is delicious! Have you heard about crayfish? They are masters cooking it! Thomas hosted a dinner at his place where I had the chance to try this typical receipt of the Finnish cuisine. Though not being difficult to cook it, we made a video for you to see how tasteful they looked!

Oscar

Poland is one of the east Europe countries with more potential and interest for wine producers. With over 38 million people and a very low rate of wine consumption per capita (1.56 liters in 2008), Poland shall retain more attention from the wine world. It recently got ours! Although we have exported Port Wine to this market few years ago, nothing very consistent in terms of marketing was done. But last month, we were introduced to a new project developed by Portuguese entrepreneurs, who decided to set up a wine bar/ restaurant, focusing on Mediterranean food together with Portuguese wines: Grill & Co.

I was there for the opening of the bar, presenting our Ports to the press and teaching the bar staff about Port. It was my first time in Warsaw and in the whole Poland and I must say I’m impressed by the development this country shows. Only the weather was a bit rough, hardly over 0º C, which made my tours around the hotel shorter and quicker that what I wished. Well, maybe that is a good excuse to come back for Summer time.

When we talk about Poland what do you think about in terms of food? Think in a vegetable that, like the country, also starts with PO. You’re right, potatoes! If you go there, expect to eat a lot of potatoes. And actually, they are deliciously served! One of the typical dishes is kotlet schabowy z t?uczonymi ziemniakami i zasma?anymi buraczkami , or pork chop with mashed potatoes and fried beetroot. Delicious! Check out the video if and you want to cook Polish typical dish for dinner!

Oscar

I do not know its name, does anyone can help?

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

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

Once again the setbacks appeared. The objective was to pair the roasted pork with Quevedo LBV 2003, but Oscar Jr. forgot to bring the wine, and so I was forced to open my last bottle of Quevedo Port: a Tawny. (I really need to go to São João da Pesqueira to restock my cellar; I hope I can do it within a few days when I go to the harvest.)

I can tell you that although the wine wasn’t the first choice, this time the result was amazing! The marriage between the Port Wine and the roasted pork with Dijon mustard was obvious. The sweetness of Port perfectly “blended” with the spicy Dijon mustard, balancing the intensity of flavours.

So many flavours… so many things to discover.

Till next post,

Bruno Pinto

Quevedo with tonic

I probably have to apologize to those more conservative about Port. To those more liberal, I must confess and share my experience. I am not quite sure if this is the best place to talk about cocktails with Port, but as we promised to share all our wine related experiences in the Quevedo’s web, I cannot turn back now (though I hope my father does not read this!).

Well, last week we had some friends at our place and we handled a wine tasting before dinner. We had finished the dessert and we were wondering about what to drink next. It was a warm and very dry night. We started with wine and we wanted to finish with wine. Wasn’t 82 ºF enough to forget Port? No, not enough. I looked at the fridge and could find some cans of tonic. In the shelve there was a bottle of Quevedo Reserve Ruby almost full. Maybe you are asking yourselves “is not Portonic with dry white Port?”.

Are you sure you can drink tonic with a ruby Port? (someone asked me). Yes guys, lets put it together. Ice, a lot of ice, 2/3 tonic and 1/3 of Port, this order. My first impression was quite tough: this is not Port, is like a random cocktail I could find in the worst bar. I am killing my business. But then, maybe 5 seconds later, people started to say: “not bad”, “I could order this in a disco”, “ohh, it is cool”. And I also started to like it. We discussed for some time and we concluded that this could be a nice drink to young people.

I will try again!

Óscar Quevedo