Roy Hersh also writes a monthly newsletter for its subscribers. One of the topics of the newsletter is “A Question for the Trade”, which, as the name says, is a question from Roy or the FTLOP fun to the Port Wine Producers. For the December edition, Roy also invited Quevedo to participate, and we are very proud for this first collaboration in Roy’s newsletter. Well, I would like to suggest you to visit the web, participate in their forum and subscribe Roy’s newsletter. Especially for Port Wine lovers, the newsletter and the forum deserve to be read.

Oscar Quevedo

Not suprisingly, their stand was continually full of people milling with curious stares and outreached hands. And upon first taste of the free CaipiRoyal, satisfied grins left the table sharing their discovery with others. Consequently, I had to try it, and I must confess, I liked it. It is very sweet, easy to drink and fresh. Would I drink it in a bar? Yes, I would!

Portugal and Brazil are CaipiRoyal’s main target markets. Real Companhia Velha has been presenting the cocktail in several restaurants/bars in Porto, Lisbon and in Algarve; focusing on countries where the original caipirinha is best known, while keeping away from more traditional Port Wine markets like United Kingdom. Indeed, in the English version of the web page, information on the CaipiRoyal can just be found in the news section, while in the Portuguese version there is a tab listed on the main page titled Caipi Royal.

I do not know if Quevedo will ever have its own version of Caipirinha. But what is indisputable is that Port producers are struggling hard to get the attention of younger consumers with lighter, easy-drinking and trendy versions of Port.

After Croft and Real Companhia Velha, who will be the next?

Oscar Quevedo

Roger & Luc De Smedt wine shop, Belgium

These days Quevedo head up north in Brussels, Belgium, doing some wine tasting with our clients and with the clients of our clients. The tasting will end tomorrow, the November 11th. If you are close to Brussels and if you want to taste our Port Wine, our Douro Wine or even any other wine from the producers present at the tasting (see the list underneath), just email me and I can try to get an invitation for you.

As far as I hear from the client here in the tasting, French wines still having the majority share in the Belgium’s’ private cellars. Nevertheless, wines from Spain, like DO Cava, from South Africa and from Portugal are getting more and more demand from those who look for new experiences and new tasting.

We are offering for tasting two Douro wines (Vinho Cão 2002 and Quinta Vale D’Agodinho 2003) and five Port Wines (Porto Rita’s Tawny, Porto Quevedo White, 10 Years Old, LBV 2000 and Vintage 2005). While the Douro wine is almost always a surprise as people here did not ever had tasted a Portuguese not fortified wine, the Port Wine is easily a success. The Belgium love Port (Belgium is the fifth market in value and volume) and there are a lot of Port enthusiasts. They know the different categories of Port, some emblematic brands and they are aware of the good harvests. This makes me really happy. I feel that all the hard work we have during the year to get a good wine is then carefully evaluated and analyzed by people that love wine. And this passion for wine is the principle of a small and familiar winery such us Quevedo!

Óscar Quevedo

Wine producers also represented in the wine tasting:

France

Mr Vigier, Chateau Les Chaumes, Chateau Reve, Pomerol

Mr Jean Luc Alla, Chateau de St Pey Gran Cru St Emilion

Mr Yves Glottin, Chateau Goudichaud, Chateau La Fleur des Graves, Graves de Vayres

Mr Francois de Coninck, Chateau Junayme, Chateau Canon, Fronsac

Mr Henri Brut, Clocher Notre Dame de Marceille, Clocher de Rouffiac, Limoux

Mr Gilles Bousquet, Domaine St Antoine, Minervois

Mlle Pedrol, Chateau Les Pins Cotes de Roussillon, Rivesaltes, Cotes de Roussillon

Mr Jerome Jelonch, Le Faite de St Mont, Plaimont

Domaine Edmond Rentz, Alsace

Domaine du Vieux Chateau, Daniel-Etienne Defaix, Chablis

Other countries

Ms Yngvild Steytler, Kaapzicht, Steytler, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Mr Erik Scheerlinck, Tsinandali, Saparavi Marani, Mukuzani from Georgia, Tamaioasa from Romania, Enira from Bulgaria

Mr Pedro Azcunaga, Azcunaga, Mont Michel, Navarra and Cava, Spain

Home & Passion Restaurant

These days we are traveling in Belgium to do some wine tasting with our clients. Once a year, one of our clients, Roger & Luc De Smedt, a distributor located in Brussels, invites his clients for a wine tasting in a restaurant or a wine shop with the producers he represent and then finally at his shop.

We are here for four days, from Saturday November 8th to Tuesday, November 11th. Today we are in the Home & Passion restaurant, a French traditional cuisine restaurant, where the Italian Chef Pino, from Sicilia, leads the kitchen. We were four producers: Alain Vigier from Bordeaux, France, Daniel-Etienne Defaix from Chablis France, Kaapzicht from Stellenbosch, South Africa and us, Quevedo from Douro, Portugal.

At around 7pm we had dinner at the Home & Passion and after we went to a decoration shop also for showing our wines to the people that were visiting the shop and buying decoration stuff for Christmas.

Quevedo Wines

And as there is no Christmas without Port Wine, 7 weeks before Christmas is probably the right moment to think about which Port to choose. And why the tasting at the decoration shop? Well, a bottle could also be seen as a decoration piece while the wine is in its ageing process!! Or maybe the right reason is that Luc is friend of the decoration shop owner!

It has been a fruitfulness experience and I hope to come back to you once again during these days.

Óscar Quevedo

Ripening Control

The vintage is close and ripening control is very important to define the date of the harvest and to define the order that different fields should be harvest within the same vineyard.

We were carrying out ripening controls in Quinta da Alegria (up Cima-Corgo) on August 29th and in Quinta das Olgas (Douro Superior) on September 2nd. On the top of Quinta da Alegria the grapes were with 11,5º Bé; the bottom part was with 12,1º Bé. Last year on August 23rd we got 12,5º Bé in the upper side and 12,8º Bé in the bottom part. In Quinta das Olgas we carried out the ripening control on September 2nd. The field Vale do Nedo was with 13,0º Bé, Barroso 13,2º Bé and Olgas with 11,7º Bé. On 2007 the control was done on August 30th and Vale do Nedo was with 12,4º Bé, Barroso with 13,1º Bé and Olgas with 12,0º Bé.

Last year ripening was pretty much advanced in Quinta da Alegria. This year weather is quite irregular and even yesterday rained a bit in S. João da Pesqueira and the forecast for the next two days is also rain. We have to hold on and keep doing ripening control to define a more accurate date for the beginning of the harvest.

In 2007 we started the harvest in Quinta das Olgas and Quinta da Alegria on September 3rd. We collected both at the same time because ripening were quite similar in both and we also had a lot of employees available as we were at the beginning of September and almost no one was harvesting. Grapes came to the winery with good sugar content and good acidity, so we could get balanced must. Grapes from Quinta das Olgas was between 13,5º Bé and 14º Bé and grapes from Quinta da Alegria between 13,0º Bé and 13,8º Bé.

This year is different, lets wait 3 or 4 more days, keep doing ripening controls and pray for better weather!

I will keep you up-to-date.

Cláudia Quevedo

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

Philosophy

It is a long and uncertain road from the selection of the land up to the glass of wine at home or in a table of a restaurant. Due to the family tradition of wine production, the first part was not a problem: our family already had much experience in the cultivation and winemaking of the grapes. What were missing was the marketing, selling the bottled wine it produced; and many years had gone when it finally was possible. Maybe it was our great grandfather Raul`s phrase what fed these concerns: “Table wine (not port) just brings consumption”.

Some more steps were needed to close the cycle with which our father dreamt about: “From the vine to the glass”. Historically, Port marketing has been directed to a consumer with more than 50 years old, and all the communication was coherent with this profile. But on the other hand, the thirty years-old consumer has been forgotten and Quevedo wanted to find him.

So it was needed to create a brand suitable for the wines we produce and for the customer we want to communicate with. A genuine wine made for modern customers, who drink Port naturally and relaxed: actually an “easy-drinking” Port.

At the end it was easier than it seamed; after all the product was genuine and the one who tasted it felt in love with the Quevedo’s nectar. And it is in this genuineness of our wines that Quevedo’s success stands.

And if the customer wants to drink our Port at 55º, with ice or even White Port with soda, we will not say no. On the contrary, because if there is Port for all occasions, Quevedo just has to figure them out!