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

As promised, here I am to share with you my last experiences about pairing Port Wine with food.

The first experience was at the bachelor party of a friend, where the best man cooked a fantastic pasta alla norma (with eggplant and tomatoes), a recipe of the well known chef Jamie Oliver. For the wine to be up to this occasion I took with me a Quevedo LBV 2003, so we could try to pair Port with the main dish. This leaves behind the common rule of drinking Port Wine only with appetizers and desserts.

I have to confess that it wasn’t a pleasant experience. The pasta didn’t have a flavour strong enough to contrast with the Port Wine. Quite the contrary, actually. The tomatoes give the pasta a gentle sweetness that highlights the sugar of the Port Wine. This can not be considered very pleasant when we want to enjoy a delicious pasta. Almost everyone shared this opinion, except the best man (and cooker), perhaps because of his daring, that makes him always look forward to new adventures and experiences. (The crazier the better)

Not satisfied with the outcome, a few days latter I arranged a dinner were the objective was to defeat the preconceived idea, proven in the last dinner, that the Port Wine doesn’t make a good combination with the main dish. The menu was roast pork with Dijon mustard.

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

I invite you to visit the site Food & Wine Pairing. There you can select the dish you want to pair the wine with, and they will tell you the best varietals that the wine should has. In other site, from the famous wine writer Natalie McLean, you can find and learn how to pair each dish with the perfect wine. These not so small details can make the difference in a dinner that would be just ok or regular.

Port Wine is usually associated with aperitifs and desserts like chocolate or cheese. These are common and delicious combinations.

But even seeming evident these match, to make the best use of it, is still necessary to put together the right type of Port with the chocolate or cheese to taste.

For instance, if the cheese to be served is more intense or hard cheese, the option should be a Tawny type, preferably aged in wood for many years. If you choose a soft cheese with medium intensity, so you should pair it with a Ruby type, such as a Reserve Ruby or a LBV.

Is Port just a good marriage with desserts, cheeses or nuts? Aren’t we being too conservatives regarding the way that a Port should be paired? Are there better combinations than the ones we show above? How daring are you?

In the next post I will try to give you some suggestion that I hope can surprise you and whet one’s appetite…

Till then,

Bruno Pinto