Text João Barbosa | Translation Jani Dunne

There’s a topic my family keeps going back to, which is memory. It’s a stubborn term, a byzantine discussion… it’s become a mere trigger for smiles, because everybody has said and explained their thoughts. In my view, photos aren’t necessary to build memories.

Someone once strategically placed a book so that I would stumble upon it because the author says in it that books or images are necessary for making memories. Well, in thousands of years of evolution, mankind has always had memories, and photography only came about in the 19^th century, around the 20s. Even painted portraits are only “a few” centuries old, but are secondary to Homo Sapiens Sapiens’ lifetime. Besides, neither photography nor painting – especially the latter – were available to most people. Furthermore, memory can also be falsified and reinvented, even made up.

What I’m getting to is Dão, three of its wines, to be specific. My memory of the Dão region consists of a photograph in which I am seen building a train out of the chairs in my house with the children from Campo de Besteiros. However, my most clear memory is a centipede drowned in the sink – isn’t that odd?

Arco dos Cavaleiros (old) in visoeu.blogspot.pt

Arco dos Cavaleiros Nowadays in Panoramio.com – Photo by filipe_ | All Rights Reserved

To me, Dão – from Viseu – brings back a bad memory of a disagreement I had in a so called “restaurant”, where my stake was served with a string of hair. I am still not a fan of Viseu, with all due respect for its inhabitants, whether born or latecomers.

“Dão” doesn’t say much to me. And yet the wine is standing there, on a shelf in front of me. My dad often bought wine from that region. I’m 45 years old, but while I was a child, Douro “didn’t exist”, Alentejo “didn’t exist”… I have no recollection of Bairrada… there was Vinho Verde and a few wine brands, mostly from super productive vineyards, probably Estremadura and Ribatejo.

Because my dad almost always had red wine, to me Dão is red. And still today! Doctor Freud could explain that. However, it’s much more than just red. It’s a region of wonderful nectars, and a good number of diligent producers. The problem with Dão is the size of the land with a very typically Portuguese characteristic – and probably enhanced in that area –, discord.

There are two special moments of when I first discovered Dão. One is a bottle, the other an event. In the first episode, I remember being surprised to discover a ballroom Chuck Norris and, in the other, I met a group of senior officials in ball wear.

I call it Chuck Norris because it’s strong and resistant, but elegant… you might think that “James Bond” would have been a better suit, except 007 is a man of the city. Here’s the story: in my parent’s house, there was a bottle of Cavaleiros Colheita de 1983. I don’t know how exactly it was still there down, but, because it survived, my father gave it to me in February 1994, when I moved out and started my life as a single man. However, the bottle still lived another decade. One day, in 2007, I thought it had to be opened. Incredible! Amazing! So young, so elegant… What does it have to do with Chuck Norris, you ask? Well, the bottle (or wine) was in the sun, spent its life in the daytime, it wasn’t stored horizontally and it moved a few times. Colossal in every sense!

Stay tuned for the next episode.