My Vineyard Blog November 2009

The Past is a Foreign Country

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.

No Lemons this Year

No Lemons

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. Thebarragem is nearly empty and a number of my neighbours are without water, their springs having dried up.

Wine and Smoke

To Lisbon, or more specifically Quinta de Beloura near Sintra, for a meeting with our distributors in Portugal, Vinicom. 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.

Two very different tastings...

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.