Due to their wedding, Mouna and Andreas gave me one of the best cultural experiences of my life, which I will never forget. The wedding was in Niamey, the capital of Niger, a landlocked country located in Western Africa. This was my first time in Africa and I was very excited for that, a continent with such a vast history and culture, with so many different landscapes and one of the most intact continents of the world.

Very differently from the European weddings, which usually last for half a day, celebrations of this weeding lasted for three days and four nights. It started on Wednesday with a welcome dinner for all the family and friends of the bride and groom. After eating very tasty and sometimes spicy local food and drinking a red iced tea called bissap (which I loved and brought some with me to Portugal), we started pushing the groom to the pool. For big surprise of the locals, but as expect when you start playing these games, the night finished with the groom, one of our friends and me in the pool, with no time for undressing.

On the next day, Thursday, there was a big session to paint hands and feet of the ladies, which special emphases on the painting the bride would show when meeting the groom after the religious ceremony. On the other side, men had a more relaxed day, with plenty of time to swim and play in the pool.

On Friday was the religious ceremony. As this was a Muslim wedding, I was eager to see and know how all this would be. There were plenty of differencies, starting by the dressing code: everybody on local dresses. But beside that, as the bride’s mum is a Tuareg descent, all the young men, groom’s father included, were dressing the famous turban. The turban is used by the Tuareg for fending off the desert sand and protecting the head and face from very high temperatures and strong sunlight. We were far away from the desert but to preserve local culture, we were with a turban on. The religious ceremony itself, which lasted for around 30 minutes, counted with the participation of sultans from all around Niger. Surprisingly for me, neither the bride or the groom attended to it. The bride was at her parents house and the groom in another house of the family, both located in the street where the ceremony was happening. Also women were not allowed to participate, they were all at bride’s parents house, listing to the canticles through the loudspeakers installed under the tent where all men were. The pinnacle of the ceremony happens when representatives from groom’s family, bride’s family and church discuss the dowry groom’s family would pay for marrying the bride. In the end, Andreas paid a symbolic amount for Mouna and received cows and goats from the Mouna family as gifts. It was a great deal for him!

On the next day, Saturday, and next-to-last day of our visit, was the civil ceremony, presided by Niamey’s Mayor. There I was feeling at home, as this was similar of what we are used to have in Europe. Also the dressing code was similar to ours, suits for men and long dresses for ladies. And right after leaving the house and going to the hotel where the civil wedding would take place, I understood why suit is not very popular in a country with top temperatures of 40º and humidity over 90% all the time. The party ended late in the night, or better said, early in the morning, after sunrise. It seemed hard to keep dancing all night long, but in such a nice hotel over the Niger river, hanging out with happy people that imbue you of energy, you never feel tired.

And it’s because of these nice, always smiling and happy people that I fell in love with Africa. I want to go back soon, to Niger and to other African countries. For the love of Andreas and Mouna!

Here you can find photos of all the trip to Niger. If there is something you would like leave a comment.

Oscar

When I was planning which wines to present at the tasting, I didn’t have many doubts. We had to present the wines that are now being imported to the US. So the list included Oscar’s 2008, Quevedo Colheita 1996 and Quevedo Vintage 2007. I also asked my father if I could bring from Portugal our Colheita 1975, which rests at my parents cellar. He agreed.

If everything had gone as planned, the wines for the event would have been shipped from our importer’s warehouse directly to LA and I would bring the 1975 with me from Portugal. But there was a small issue. Part of the wines for the tasting were delayed in Indiana at the morning of the tasting. Andy and I panicked when we realized we wouldn’t have enough bottles of Oscar’s for the tasting. Only two bottles were with us. It What a nightmare, we invited 20 people to taste our wines and we didn’t have enough wine. With few options left, we decided to go to one of the biggest retailers in LA, K&L, to buy some Douro wine with a similar profile as Oscar’s. There were no many options and we finally decided to go for Crasto 2007. People at the tasting understood the situation and I think they actually found it interesting to taste these two wines side by side. I swore them I was not being paid by Quinta do Crasto to promote their wines in the US, actually they have a pretty good marketing team. The most important was to have wines for tasting!

Oscar

The dream is over. I came to Walla Walla, Washington, to attend at the Wine Bloggers Conference. If you remind, the winners of the Wine Blog Awards, for which we were nominated for Best Winery Blog, would be revealed during the first day of the conference. This is what happened this afternoon. Although I really wished to bring home the award, the winner is Been Doon So Long. Congratulations to Randall Grahm for his work!

On the other categories, our good friends Ryan and Gabriella Opaz from Catavino won the category Best Writing On a Wine Blog and Joe Roberts from 1 Wine Dude won the prize for Best Overall Wine Blog.

For now I’m going to rest as this was a really long day. It was great to see a lot of folks that I met last year in Sonoma at the WBC 2009. The conference continues tomorrow and finishes on Sunday.

Oscar

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Can you imagine what is happening to us? Our Douro wine Oscar’s 2008 and some Ports are now being listed on Naked Wines!! Yes, you read it correctly, naked wines. Does it mean that I’ll be naked in upcoming tastings? No, fortunately for everyone! It means that Oscar’s 2008 and some of our Ports can now be purchased in an on-line wine retailer which sells wines from many small winemakers throughout UK. As they say, they have nothing to hide, and as we also have nothing to hide, Oscar’s is now available on Naked Wines too. This is my presentation video for Naked Wines fans who didn’t know us before.

And don’t forget to let us know what you think about the wine!

Oscar

This is the time for you to say what you think about our blog. And you only have until May 30th to vote. So please click here for the survey link and participate.

Now I’ll open a good bottle from the cellar, yep, I also celebrate nominations!!!

Oscar

This is a big step for a small family winery from the Douro. Few weeks after starting this blog, in July 2008, I put as two of our goals to find an importer for our wines in the UK and other in the US. Last November we found an importer in the UK: Wine Fantastic. And in April 2010 the first pallet of wine is going to the US. P.R. Grisley is trusting us and is bringing 6 different wines: Oscar’s 2008, White Port, Special Reserve Tawny, LBV 2003, Colheita 1996 and Vintage 2007. Some of these wines will be listed in the PLBC. Others, for now, will be available in a special offer that the Port Wine focused forum For the love of Port will make for its subscribers.

But I’ll talk about that later, now it’s time to celebrate and to open a special bottle from the cellar. This is a dream coming true!

Prowein is one of the most important wine fairs. It takes place in Dusseldorf, Germany, every March. During three days we have the opportunity to talk to our clients and meet new people looking for new wines to distribute. At the end of the day everyone is tired and always looking for a good opportunity to relax. Listening to jazz music, performed by a band of well experienced players, was the way we chose to spend our spare time with some friends. Check the video.

If you go to Dusseldorf, do not miss the opportunity to meet John and his crew. They perform in a typical bar in Mertensgasse street. You will have a LOT of fun! I’m already looking for Powein 2011!

Oscar

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At its most basic level, wine tastings are a fun experience. We check out the wine’s color, smell its bouquet, and most importantly, we taste the wine. Universally, this is accepted as the essential steps of tasting; but the irony is, we all have different sensations, feelings and experiences towards each and every wine. Some find blackberries where others are thinking about plums; some describe a wine as mineral and others say it’s earthy. And does the alcohol affect your month in the say way it affects mine? And acidity, are your taste buds more sensitive than mine?

We interpret the winemaker’s masterpiece in different ways, which logically, allows each and every one of us to discern what we enjoy and what we’d rather dump down our kitchen sink. Even the same wine, tasted by different people, can receive widely different reactions.

And so the story goes with our Quevedo Vintage Port 2007, recently tasted by Jay Miller of the Wine Advocate. Jay tasted a large cross-section of the 2007 Vintage currently in the US market, scoring our Port at 88 points. On the other hand, Wine Enthusiast, another American wine magazine, rated it at 92 points, while Roy Hersh, considered by some as the top Port wine expert in the US, gave it a 93/95+.

So I was wondering, what qualifies as an 88 point Port wine for Wine Advocate? Here are some examples:

We’re pretty happy to be in the company of such fine wines. Critics and points are nice, but what matters more to us is what you our customer think of this wine. Therefore, we invite you to visit our winery to share a glass of our Vintage 2007 with our family; or if you stumble across our wine in another part of the world, please don’t hesitate to leave your thoughts here.

But better yet, tell us what you think a point tastes like? What do points mean to you? How do they shape your experience with the wines that you love! We want to know!

Oscar

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The bad weather of the last week-end left a trace of destruction almost everywhere in Portugal. After landslides reported in Azores, heavy rain in the north and center of Portugal with floods in the Tejo valley, in the Douro the troblemaker was the wind. At our winery, the most affected part was the roof of our stainless steel bins cellar. 30% of it flu away. And guess where the pieces of the roof flu to? Right, to the middle of the vineyards!

This is definitively not a big issue, only material damage reported. But we will need some weeks to repair our winery and restore the coverage of the different building affected.

And as this was not enough, yesterday we lost the phone connection…

If you are visiting us these days, you already know what is waiting for you!

Oscar

Now the challenge: with which music would you pair the Vintage 2007?

Cheers,

Pedro