To Vilamoura in the Algarve to show Pedra Basta to the Algarve Wine Society. I hadn’t been to the central part of the Algarve for fifteen years or more so I was struck by the all the changes than have taken place. Vilamoura is a high-rise new town that merges almost imperceptibly with nearby Quarteira. Nearly all feeling of being in Portugal is lost. The tasting took place at a five star hotel in Vila Sol, a quiet golfing suburb in the pine trees. I presented Pedra Basta 2007 as well as cask samples of our 2008 for the first time. Whereas the 2007 need time to open up and I fear was not showing at its best even by the end of the night, the 2008 looked gorgeous, full of vibrant fruit. The audience were mostly English ex-patriots and I met some great characters including a lady who opened the first French restaurant in Albufeira in the mid-1960s before Faro airport had been built. She regaled me with recollections of the place and looking at it now her story seems to belong to pre-history even though it was only 45 years ago.  The past is a foreign country... 

permalink

To Lisbon, or more specifically Quinta de Beloura near Sintra, for a meeting with our distributors in Portugal, Vinicom ( www.vinicom.pt)  Thirteen of us squeezed into their small boardroom. Their team included all the regional representatives for the country including the Alentejo, Algarve, Lisbon and Setúbal. Our regional sales breakdown shows we are doing quite well in the south of the country but not so well in the north. This is perhaps to be expected given that the Alentejo is much weaker than the Douro in Oporto and is typically seen as a source of cheaper wine. All the members of the sales team reiterated that Portugal is crowded out with wines at the moment. Although everyone agreed that Pedra Basta has a very good quality / price ratio we need to have a distinctive story to tell and create some more noise. [See Sonho Lusitano Vinhos page for the availability of Pedra Basta in Portugal].  At my last meeting with Vinicom in 2007 nearly everyone smoked and I left reeking of cigarette smoke. Today, although there was a large ashtray on the table, thankfully no one lit up until the end of the meeting. It is a reflection of how Portugal is changing. But in a restaurant in Lisbon with excellent food and a very good wine list (Horta dos Brunos, Rua Ilha do Pico, 27) I was saddened to see a couple of businessmen smoking Marlborogh all the way through lunch.  

permalink

There are no lemons on our tree this year. I usually rely on two trees near the adega to provide me with enough fruit to make my liver-cleansing cup of lemon tree in the morning. But the warm, dry weather in late September, and October caused the flowers to wither and fall to the ground. Although we had some substantial rain this weekend the clouds have now cleared and a dry and sunny week is forecast. The barragem is nearly empty and a number of my neighbours are without water, their springs having dried up. This dry, settled autumn has left us with a riot of colour and in the vineyard different varieties and can be distinguished from each other by their respective autumnal shade. The Alicante Bouschet is a deep, dark maroon. I walk through the vineyard at sunset tasting the netas or 'grandchildren' (so called because they are the grapes from the second flowering).  Left unpicked in September, these are now sweet and ripe without the usual rot that you would expect by November. There is not quite enough for a late harvest.    

permalink

I presented Pedra Basta at two very different tastings in the UK in the past ten days, both for the retail customers of independent wine merchants. The first was for Hanging Ditch wine merchants in Manchester where a large and noisy Friday-night crowd packed into a music-filled room above the Albertshed restaurant in Castlefield. The second was a more subdued event for Handford in London and took place mid-week in a rather dark room in the Kensington Hotel. But what struck me more than the difference between them was the high level of knowledge among the people attending, especially in Manchester where the average age was much lower and the enthusiasm for wine almost infectious. I doubt that either event will convert into greatly increased sales for us but it was worth being present at both just to talk to real wine drinkers. With the slow demise of the High Street wine trade in the UK there is a big gap opening up between the supermarkets and the small independents. The supermarkets do a reasonably good job providing ‘commodity wine’ i.e. large volumes of wine made to a price point and the independent wine merchants are better and greater in number than ever before. But I am worried how someone who likes wine and wants to take and greater interest in it bridges the considerable gap between the supermarket and the independent. With the downfall of Thresher etc., Oddbins and Majestic are the only names left on the UK High Street where one can walk in and pick a bottle off the shelf with a degree of confidence. Yet there is all that enthusiasm out there just waiting to be tapped.          

permalink