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

I want to go back and see the Douro from there. Actually, if I could, I would build my house there!

Oscar

Oscar

From 9am to 6pm GMT all the steps of a harvesting in the Douro will be broadcast, including the fortification of must for Port Wine. At 5pm there will be an audio connection with the conference room in the BWT, where Ryan Opaz, from Catavino, will be speaking about Social Media in Action.

The S. João da Pesqueira’s Town Hall is providing the technology and video experts for the realization of the live streaming to the BTW. This last one offers the  opportunity to on/off traders and press visitors, to taste small productions of exclusive wines. Quevedo has great expectations about this wine fair as a way to find an importer or distributor for its wines and Ports in the United Kingdom.

After launching the first Port Wine producer blog, Quevedo (which currently grows 250 acres of wines and 50 acres of organic olive trees in S. João da Pesqueira, Douro, Portugal) reinforces its commitment with new technologies using them as a direct and interactive way to communicate with the wine lovers, becoming the first Port producer to stream live the harvest.

We would like to invite you to visit our winery and our vineyards in the Douro valley.

But as some reports and data show, recession is not always a bad thing for the wine business. I have seen a lot of people drinking wine, wine shops and the wine sections of supermarkets have people buying and importers seem to be still looking for European wines.

Thus, the current market situation is not a reason to put me down and I will not throw in the towel: my mission is clear, to find an importer for our wines!

This photo was taken at 5.20am from our friends’ apartment in New Jersey.

Oscar

First time I visited São Miguel I was 4 or 5 years old, not sure exactly. With all the excitement of the travel, in which I would have the companion of my sister and cousins, while having a shower the day before departure, I slipped and suffered a head injury. While running with my mom to the local hospital, I thought I could not board next morning!!

Two weeks ago I revisited São Miguel. I could still remember some places: the black sand beach at the bottom of my uncle’s house; the banana trees, pineapple’s greenhouses (btw with amazing tasting pineapples); the village of Furnas, where during the first time I visited the island, we cooked a stew in geysers. Furnas also has lot of hot springs and a huge pool of yellow thermal water.

I had a great time in São Miguel with my uncles from my dad’s side: his sister Maria do Céu and his brother-in-law Mário; my cousins André and Joana and their husbands, Susana and Paulo. Ah, and of course with the children of each of the couples, Maria and Afonso. I want to go back and I want you to visit. You will not regret! Click here to see more photos.

I brought with me in the bag a bottle of a white still wine from Pico. It was the first time I tasted a wine from this island. It was a Frei Gigante from 2007 harvest, golden straw color, wit flavor of toasted bread, slightly oxidized. On the palate it is mild and with a sweet finish.

Finally, what comes to your mind when talking about Azores?

Oscar

And if you are really lucky, something like one flight in one hundred, you will overfly the Douro Valley at an altitude quite low that you can pictures it from the aircraft. This is a kind of dream that just happened to me once. That time, two or three year ago, coming from Geneva, Switzerland, I could see our Quinta Vale d’Agodinho, our winery and I think I could also see my grandpa’s van. Well, maybe the last one was an hallucination, though I would swear I saw it from the little window of the plane!

No, I was not the lucky guy who made this pictures. They were kindly sent to me by a big Port Lover, Axel Probst from World of Port. Axel is that kind of guy every port maker loves: knows more about Port than myself, respects and promotes Port as a knight and moreover, he is fun!

Do you have any picture those of the kind one in one hundred?

Oscar Quevedo

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On Sunday morning we went to Quinta de Ervamoira. This property, owned by Ramos Pinto, has an extraordinarily beautiful and wide vineyard. I have been waiting for this visit during a long time.  At the end of the tour, we had a tasting of Douro wines from Ramos Pinto: Bons Ares 2007 white, Duas Quintas 2006, Duas Quintas Reserva 2005 and Bons Ares 2006. Funny and educational, we got a better understanding of Ramos Pinto and its wines. Quinta de Ervamoira is worth a visit. Moreover, it has a very kind guide, Sónia Teixeira!

Take a look at the videos of our long lasting visit to Ervamoira. It was actually so long that some friends got upset while waiting for us in Foz-Côa. We couldn’t communicate, there is no network coverage there. Yeah, there are few but fortunately some places where you can stay unreachable!

Oscar Quevedo

After spending the weekend learning and speaking at the I Wine Pleasures Conference in Sitges, Barcelona, I wanted to share the presentation we showed in our talk. I have to confess that I am really happy to see so much interest in winery blogging. At our talk various people from several different fields, including wineries, media bloggers, tour operators and sommeliers were very active in the conversation. Please take a look at the presentation and let me know what you would add to it.

During this windy weekend, I also had opportunity to hear about some interesting olive oil tourism projects around Spain. It was also a great opportunity to learn a little something about how to better market our Organic Olive Oil.

Additionally, I met Ricardo Gomes, from the Portuguese company, Selected Wineries. Ricardo is representing a group of Portuguese wineries determined to promote wine tourism in their regions.

Overall, it was a great weekend, a worthwhile suffering through a little extra wind

Oscar Quevedo

During the event there will be several conferences about wine & tourism and there are also scheduled visits to Cava Village and Torres wineries. Also very interesting will be the Portuguese Wine Tasting on Friday evening (some Port and Douro Wines from Quevedo will be available for tasting) and the Spanish Wine Tasting on Saturday and on Sunday. The tireless Gabriella and Ryan Opaz from Catavino will be live blogging the tasting and you can follow it here.

On Saturday I will presente with Emilio Saez Van Eerd, Export Manager of La Casa de las Vides, a talk entitled Winery Blogging - The blogging as a new marketing tool for a winery. is the other co-presenter. We will try to give our view how blogging can help wineries to promote their wines and the wine tourism. I are sure this will be a great opportunity to meet people from the wine sector and also to learn a lot from the other presentations.

If you live close or you are passing by Sitges or Barcelona you can still register for the event. If you prefer to stay at home, enjoy a glass of wine!

Oscar Quevedo