It’s so sensual – Coupe vs Flute

Text João Barbosa | Translation Bruno Ferreira

Wine is party! Whether it be with the most common nectar or the most stratospheric. In Western countries we usually celebrate and toast with wine. Not everybody likes wine, and not everyone has a sophisticated, educated and enlightened taste. Just like many don’t have the money to fulfill the wish.

In addition to the wine its quality and price, there’s the glasses’ factor; a problem I have in my group of friends since not all of them have such a deep relationship with the wine, therefore unknowing the vases’ importance. There are reluctant ones, whether it be for stubbornness or disbelief, ignorance or inexperience, but those who drank wine on good glasses…

It’s a bit like the cutlery. Until very late the Europeans ate by hand. The skewer and blade were a common thing at the table, making the times for knife and fork. Even though the fork is a very ancient instrument, long before Christ.

Nowadays, the fork is so common and so logically useful that it might sound weird how the Europeans ate with their hands up to XVI… XIX… XX century. It is said that its first appearance was at the table of the King of France by the hand of Catarina de Medicis, married to Henrique II.

The fork replaced the skewer and blade, but the knife remained forgotten. There’s lack of reliable information, because it wasn’t given much importance at the time, but legend has it that was at Parisian restaurant La Tour d’Argent that they finally found its place together at the table.

The foundation’s date is uncertain, but this house – which still exists today, though it has changed address – is said to have been established in 1582. It must have been then that Henrique IV, consort of France and King of Navarra, learned to use cutlery, the first monarch to ever use them.

Luis XIV, his grandson, was a regular at La Tour d’Argent and, by that time, the usage of cutlery in the crown was already a common thing. However, silverwares only began to emerge in wealthy homes from the mid-nineteenth century onwards.

It is said that King Sol said that champagne was «the King of Wines and the wine of Kings». A nectar that was born in 1670, by the hand of Dom Pérignon. From that point on, this sparkling no longer left the monarchs side, but they drank it in undifferentiated and obviously dysfunctional glasses.

There are two versions for the birth story of its first dedicated coupe. The first champagne coupe is said to have been modelled on a breast of Queen Maria Antonieta or of Josefina de Beauharnais, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Science and ingenuity prove that coupes are improper for a sparkling wine. As any instrument, function is rather more important than shape. And thus was born the flute.

While the flute, with its crystalline timbre, combines the sparklings’ delicacy and maintains the soul of the wine… the coupe, born in the intimacy of royalty, is far more beautiful.

With snobbishness – it’s a provocation, but with no offence intended – the flute is bourgeois, so it must be shown. The coupe is noble, nobility’s old-gold, discrete and reserved.

Not convinced? I’ll go back to the cutlery. The silver – with its characteristic odor, requiring care when preparing the table – will never be defeated by christofle, a material named after the jeweler that created it.

A coupe is far more sensual than a flute… and who is able to keep a delicate sparkling wine, for a long period of time, in the glass?

It's so sensual – Coupe vs Flute

Text João Barbosa | Translation Bruno Ferreira

Wine is party! Whether it be with the most common nectar or the most stratospheric. In Western countries we usually celebrate and toast with wine. Not everybody likes wine, and not everyone has a sophisticated, educated and enlightened taste. Just like many don’t have the money to fulfill the wish.

In addition to the wine its quality and price, there’s the glasses’ factor; a problem I have in my group of friends since not all of them have such a deep relationship with the wine, therefore unknowing the vases’ importance. There are reluctant ones, whether it be for stubbornness or disbelief, ignorance or inexperience, but those who drank wine on good glasses…

It’s a bit like the cutlery. Until very late the Europeans ate by hand. The skewer and blade were a common thing at the table, making the times for knife and fork. Even though the fork is a very ancient instrument, long before Christ.

Nowadays, the fork is so common and so logically useful that it might sound weird how the Europeans ate with their hands up to XVI… XIX… XX century. It is said that its first appearance was at the table of the King of France by the hand of Catarina de Medicis, married to Henrique II.

The fork replaced the skewer and blade, but the knife remained forgotten. There’s lack of reliable information, because it wasn’t given much importance at the time, but legend has it that was at Parisian restaurant La Tour d’Argent that they finally found its place together at the table.

The foundation’s date is uncertain, but this house – which still exists today, though it has changed address – is said to have been established in 1582. It must have been then that Henrique IV, consort of France and King of Navarra, learned to use cutlery, the first monarch to ever use them.

Luis XIV, his grandson, was a regular at La Tour d’Argent and, by that time, the usage of cutlery in the crown was already a common thing. However, silverwares only began to emerge in wealthy homes from the mid-nineteenth century onwards.

It is said that King Sol said that champagne was «the King of Wines and the wine of Kings». A nectar that was born in 1670, by the hand of Dom Pérignon. From that point on, this sparkling no longer left the monarchs side, but they drank it in undifferentiated and obviously dysfunctional glasses.

There are two versions for the birth story of its first dedicated coupe. The first champagne coupe is said to have been modelled on a breast of Queen Maria Antonieta or of Josefina de Beauharnais, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Science and ingenuity prove that coupes are improper for a sparkling wine. As any instrument, function is rather more important than shape. And thus was born the flute.

While the flute, with its crystalline timbre, combines the sparklings’ delicacy and maintains the soul of the wine… the coupe, born in the intimacy of royalty, is far more beautiful.

With snobbishness – it’s a provocation, but with no offence intended – the flute is bourgeois, so it must be shown. The coupe is noble, nobility’s old-gold, discrete and reserved.

Not convinced? I’ll go back to the cutlery. The silver – with its characteristic odor, requiring care when preparing the table – will never be defeated by christofle, a material named after the jeweler that created it.

A coupe is far more sensual than a flute… and who is able to keep a delicate sparkling wine, for a long period of time, in the glass?

Blood in the Winery

Text João Barbosa | Translation Bruno Ferreira

Someone once said – a famous politician, writer or military man…- that a man without enemies is worthless, give or take. As far as I know, I have no enemies, so I’ll try to get a few with this chronicle. The motto has the color of blood.

Red Vinho Verde is a wine «product» – I despise the usage of the word on beautiful things such as wine, therefore I’m using it purely as a resource and not as an offense – appreciated by many, as many think to appreciate it (they probably have never drunk it), others claim to like it just to be nice and others abhor it.

Myself, I’m in the group of those who abhor red Vinho Verde!

But bear in mind: I fully respect tradition, ethnic dimension, regional truth and character. Red Vinho Verde musters all these aspects. Character is something that this Entre Douro e Minho wine does not lack of. While oenophile, I’m hoping it lasts for many and long years, keeping the features its enthusiasts appreciate. But it’s not for me.

The worst that could happen – to this «product» as to any other with authenticity – is the loss of identity, shaping to trends or crowds. I ask the winegrowers to let the red Vinho Verde continue as hitherto, not yielding on that virtue, the «truth».

I’m 45 years old and I ‘m part of a generation – perhaps the last urban – that had wine at the table: a glass at lunch (during the work week and the weekends), a glass at dinner, at parties… As a child I never drank, obviously. However, wingdings were made with wine and not with shots or distillates – only consumed in discos.

Alexandre Dumas (Father) was, in addition to exceptional novelist, a renowned restaurateur, with published work which should be read by people into the food contents. He asserted that food from a specific place should be matched with a wine from the same source.

Gastronomy is culture, just like the arts, or the work habits or the costumes. To me it makes perfect sense. Therefore, I can see why some Entre Douro e Minho dishes’ should be matched with its wine.

But to like or consider good is something else entirely different. Even what’s «good» is sometimes debatable. Red Vinho Verde has a tremendous acidity, it’s vigorous, and marks the mouth. This is one of those cases where «good» translates into a great personality, which leads to parallaxes of understanding. Heterodoxy, is neither just a virtue nor only a defect. It’s not consensual: there are those who are passionate about it, those who enjoy it as a precise and logical pairing to the food from its region of origin, and those who lack affection for it, such is my case… I dislike the grape variety vinhão and, even in Douro where they name it sousão, its presence does not fit me nicely. However, I advocate for it to remain as it is, because it’s authentic. Drank by those who like/understand it, dispensing those who feel itches.

Tradition is what it is and also the characteristics of what nature provides. One day I complained to a fellow gastronome over a famous coffee served in a no less famous «coffee shop», in Lisbon. I was scolded because that’s «the best» mountain coffee there is. Well, well… What’s the point of being «the best» if it’s unpleasant?

What’s such thing of being «the best»? What does the «academy» or people’s ancestral wisdom or personal taste say? It’s all relative. My friend is right, at a particular point of view: we need to know what it is to be able to understand it.

Madeira wine suffers of all punishments one can inflict to a wine. Who tastes it, whether casually or in a contest, should know that it’s a Madeira because the standard has to be that. You can’t demand of it what it is not.

A F1 car is better than a WRC one or a Dakar one? Each is the best in its category, incomparable. But there’s good and bad in F1, WRC and Dakar.  Just like in wine. There are good young wines and full of steam, like the red Vinho Verde.

Lately, there have been winegrowers of reference dedicating themselves to red Vinho Verde production. Nonetheless, I stand on my «disliking». There’s nothing to do. I’ll always be an heretic to those who enjoy it.

The peremptory assertions – always, never, all, nothing, etc. – are dangerous to anyone who utters them, but there might be an exception, or two or 20, just to annoy the verdict. May be the case.

They wrecked Uma Thurman’s face – The Fruit Factor

Text João Barbosa | Translation Bruno Ferreira

This February brutally sprouted a portrait of the North-american actress that steals all of her intense and feline sensuality. My God! Who’s the butcher that thought of himself as plastic surgeon?

The abominable figure was result of special effects, mix of lights, little to no shadow and deplorable’s taste makeup. Uma Thurman, born in the beautiful year of 1970 (!), 1,81m, will be my crutch on this approach of the wine subject.

I’ve heard from a Spanish oenologist that in his profession there are fruiters and carpenters. Meaning, those who favor fruit and those who prefer working with wood. There’s probably more families, but these two categories suffice for me.

I’ve been noticing that it exists – among oenophiles, critics and gastronomy writers – a great fruit valorization. Partially speaking, it sounds good to me, since wine isn’t made if not from fruit.

There are several procedures which can blur, make-up, mask or hide a truth. Ruining is always easier than fixing, knowing that mends won’t ever be exact. In wineries we can find disasters – butchering wine just like Uma Thurman’s makeup – and lifebuoys; if you have a bad wine and have to sell it, the winemaker will probably have to make use of foundation and mascara to create a special effect. It might deceive beginners and fools, but not the wise and trained people.

It’s easy to like fruit – which is neither good nor bad – and sometimes it just isn’t enough. Then the gimmicks come into play to highlight notes of easy taste’s industrial products. I’m not saying it’s either good or bad, it depends on how it shows and where it shows – if it’s for childlike enjoyment, in swimsuit or less than that, like jacuzzi, it’s fine. If it’s meant for waltzing, then jeans are not the clothes you want.

Defending the fruit sounds good to me, partially, because summarizing wine to fruit is a bummer. Boredom arises abundantly from the producer’s willingness and necessity to make business. Nothing against.

What’s hard for me is, when that naturalness of fruit, or flowers, transforms into a caricature. The demand becomes insane (!) repeatedly. I have noticed that several Dão’s producers are focusing on touriga nacional and highlighting the violet aromas.

A specific case: I have been drinking Dão’s wine caricatures. Caricatures of touriga nacional. The wines have nothing wrong with them, they’re well-made and honest. But the eagerness of achieving a holy grail and the highlighting of nature’s provided characteristics give place to some pretty ugly stuff.

It’s like Uma Thurman’s makeup artist: the technician didn’t spoil anything up. It’s all there and he didn’t added up anything that couldn’t be removed. Nevertheless, the actress was horrible.

Honestly, fruit tires me. Hearing compliments to fruit is not as thrilling to me as the outcome of an American football game – which, should in fact, be called American handball.

Fruit means fruit and many times is as boring as an oak beam inside a glass. I’m not a weevil, I don’t feed off of wood. However, I need wood on reds. I only understand the «unoaked» as a «philosophical» or «ethical» principle – exaggerating – since pleasure is weak.

In spite of everything, white and red are not the same thing. As a friend summed up:

If it’s meant to taste and smell like passion fruit, I prefer passion fruit juice.

Were I a wine producer, I would hire a carpenter oenologist… but I wouldn’t give him much money so he couldn’t buy that many barrels.

"Manual Técnico de Vinhos" – Good and useful, therefore happy

Text João Barbosa | Translation Bruno Ferreira

It is said that the Portuguese are pessimist, fatalist… fado and longing. We also know we’re the best in the world and when it comes to partying we’re only beaten by the Spanish – I write this words whispering, isn’t some «vecino» going to hear these letters and start to take advantage in laughter.

I heard, a while ago, that we’re a bipolar people. I believe there’s great truth in such statement, since to us everything’s either black or white. However, along history, Portuguese have shown to possess a fine capability of adapting themselves to reality and the world.

As the saying goes: Sorrows do not pay debts! In these difficult years – which began even before 2011 and Troika – the Portuguese have been showing their fiber. The crisis and austerity caused and causes dents, but, between bankruptcies and disappointments the truth is we did not break.

Simple things do wonders. When going through a hard time, if we look up we can find tools to fix our problems. Simple things require work.

Some days ago it was published a book of great utility for oenophiles and restaurant and hotel’s business entrepreneurs. What’s the worth of knowledge if not shared? No man is born wise and we have a whole life to learn..

Turismo de Portugal published «Manual Técnico de Vinhos» (Wines’s Technical Manual), with the end of being a manual. It’s a shame they only made 2500 copies… I hope it attains great success, that would mean making many more editions and books. Let there come more works, with more ideas.

The price? Is it expensive? Cheap? I have nothing to do with other’s pockets, but I think that a working tool doesn’t really have a cost. It’s €10 to school community – hotel sector I suppose – and €15 to general public.

I can reason with the price paid for an economic menu… a simple meal – soup, half portion, drink and coffee – costs half of that on an uninteresting snack-bar, that sells wine – at a higher price than knowledge value. Well, I’ll leave the pockets be, I don’t have salaries’ to pay.

As I said, it’s simple – simple requires work. The work was done by five hands, four (eight) connected to hotel and tourism’s schools: João Covêlo (Porto), Luciano Rosa (Algarve), Luís Lime (Estoril) and Paulo Pechorro (Coimbra). Along with the hands of oenologist Carlos Freire Correira.

Simple requires work. In addition, this one has the merit of having multiple reading levels. I think it helps beginners, reminds of some of the forgotten aspects and makes suggestions to the savvy ones.

No one will think that it exists a bottles tree and that some cultivars provide lemon juice and others wine. However, how many people know the process from its inception until uncorking or the different procedures?

The Manual’s first informations already air some certainties, contextualizing Portugal’s situation in the world. Then, approaches themes ranging from vines all the way to aromas and tastes’ perception. Ending with a useful glossary.

Is it little stuff? It’s not. Simple? Only the reading. Besides being a praiseworthy initiative, it’s a well-elaborated work, which doesn’t just tells us «things are like that, because they are», instead «they’re like that because…». Flaws? For sure it will have some. I speed read it and the only thing I noticed missing was an acute accent on the word Francónia – a German region integrated in Bavaria’s Federal State.

“Manual Técnico de Vinhos” – Good and useful, therefore happy

Text João Barbosa | Translation Bruno Ferreira

It is said that the Portuguese are pessimist, fatalist… fado and longing. We also know we’re the best in the world and when it comes to partying we’re only beaten by the Spanish – I write this words whispering, isn’t some «vecino» going to hear these letters and start to take advantage in laughter.

I heard, a while ago, that we’re a bipolar people. I believe there’s great truth in such statement, since to us everything’s either black or white. However, along history, Portuguese have shown to possess a fine capability of adapting themselves to reality and the world.

As the saying goes: Sorrows do not pay debts! In these difficult years – which began even before 2011 and Troika – the Portuguese have been showing their fiber. The crisis and austerity caused and causes dents, but, between bankruptcies and disappointments the truth is we did not break.

Simple things do wonders. When going through a hard time, if we look up we can find tools to fix our problems. Simple things require work.

Some days ago it was published a book of great utility for oenophiles and restaurant and hotel’s business entrepreneurs. What’s the worth of knowledge if not shared? No man is born wise and we have a whole life to learn..

Turismo de Portugal published «Manual Técnico de Vinhos» (Wines’s Technical Manual), with the end of being a manual. It’s a shame they only made 2500 copies… I hope it attains great success, that would mean making many more editions and books. Let there come more works, with more ideas.

The price? Is it expensive? Cheap? I have nothing to do with other’s pockets, but I think that a working tool doesn’t really have a cost. It’s €10 to school community – hotel sector I suppose – and €15 to general public.

I can reason with the price paid for an economic menu… a simple meal – soup, half portion, drink and coffee – costs half of that on an uninteresting snack-bar, that sells wine – at a higher price than knowledge value. Well, I’ll leave the pockets be, I don’t have salaries’ to pay.

As I said, it’s simple – simple requires work. The work was done by five hands, four (eight) connected to hotel and tourism’s schools: João Covêlo (Porto), Luciano Rosa (Algarve), Luís Lime (Estoril) and Paulo Pechorro (Coimbra). Along with the hands of oenologist Carlos Freire Correira.

Simple requires work. In addition, this one has the merit of having multiple reading levels. I think it helps beginners, reminds of some of the forgotten aspects and makes suggestions to the savvy ones.

No one will think that it exists a bottles tree and that some cultivars provide lemon juice and others wine. However, how many people know the process from its inception until uncorking or the different procedures?

The Manual’s first informations already air some certainties, contextualizing Portugal’s situation in the world. Then, approaches themes ranging from vines all the way to aromas and tastes’ perception. Ending with a useful glossary.

Is it little stuff? It’s not. Simple? Only the reading. Besides being a praiseworthy initiative, it’s a well-elaborated work, which doesn’t just tells us «things are like that, because they are», instead «they’re like that because…». Flaws? For sure it will have some. I speed read it and the only thing I noticed missing was an acute accent on the word Francónia – a German region integrated in Bavaria’s Federal State.

When I realized, I found myself thinking about Oscar Wilde

Text João Barbosa | Translation Bruno Ferreira

Portuguese don’t value the wine and such disregard is transversal to social and economic classes. Let us inquire cathedratic professores, of various sciences, about the chance of wine being an art…

I’ve put the question a number of times and added up: wine can be food, business, a product for inducing an altered conscious state which from there can derive to toxic dependence and addiction disease, social evil and public health problem… but not art – almost always.

Since only the ones present are missed and only those who think and allow themselves to think are wise, I’ll leave them be in their academy’s peace. I’ll dedicate myself to the statement that wine is a play.

All plays have the same base text, cast, set and… it’s never the same. And if we add more elements – epoch, society, dramatic company – even greater the disparities will be.

I’ll tell you one experience – extreme – that surely most of oenophiles have already tried: opening identical bottles of an old harvest. I recall one such experience in which five «equal» bottles were opened, three were magnificent and different from each other, another tired and the fifth was spoiled. From that year, 1955, until then, their lives were exactly the same… however… still… yet… but…

I really like Camões and his wisdoms!

Sailors from different epochs have chronicled about the luminescent phenomenon which occurs in high-sea, seen as benign – St. Elmo’s fire, evoking the patron saint of sailors.

Sailors that witnessed an electric and weatherly phenomenon were disbelieved by those who had never felt salty water in skin, clinging to the tomes of certainty. Luís de Camões, in his description of Vasco da Gama’s expedition to India, witnesses St. Elmo’s fire, describes it and challenges:

“- Behold now scripture’s sages, what phenomenons are these of nature.”

Aging is an art, assures songwriter Sérgio Godinho. That’s valid for men and wine – a play in which the actors are bio-beings.

There’s youth’s charm and experience’s charm – like there’s restless teenagers and cranky and cachectic elderly people. The other day I got sad upon seeing a «friend», now with 46 years old, «younger» than when she was 17. The plastic surgery went well, the idea of making it made her look like a fool.

The homo-erotic «The Picture of Dorian Gray» – edited with censorship in 1890 and in full version the following year – occurs to me frequently when I think about aged wines.

The everlasting beauty of Dorian – who made a pact to be forever young – contrasted with the aging and degradation of the frame, and reflecting the age, addiction and moral corruption.

When the wish wakens me to an aged wine, I look at the bottle and imagine the only Oscar Wilde’s romance. Which wine lives there? Did the label got old instead of the wine?

In this little fantasy there are no more characters, besides Dorian and his corruptor; not even Basil Hallward, the artist that took his beauty and handed it to the hedonistic Lorde Henry Wotton, that – like Fausto – takes him down… the only way of getting rid of a temptation is to give into it. The poet used this same thought another time: «I can resist everything, except a temptation».

And like that, the fate of an old wine or ancient wine, Dorian or his picture is delineated. Some age, others get charm. Citing Sérgio Godinho again: «Can anyone be someone they are not?»

Flick in the winery

Text João Barbosa | Translation Bruno Ferreira

No matter how many campaigns of promotion or defense of domestic production do the government and economic organizations enlist in, the indigenous will always be self-absorbed and look out for their pocket. We are an individualistic people, many times envious and we have a particular proneness to shoot bullets at our own feet.

Some days ago I tasted a wine from Adega Cooperativa de Vila Real, how good it would taste on a warm day. A gluttonous pinkish to be drank while exchanging ideas, too sweet to match whatever.

There was nothing wrong with the wine. The critic goes to the sealer. True that using screw caps or bottle caps on wines meant to be drank young is understandable. Understandable but poorly looking on Portuguese people. At least on indoors sales. Some markets prefer synthetic objects… that’s business, I can see them fitting the shelf of easy and brief wines.

A company that chooses, as sealer to its wine, a synthetic cylinder, slippery even for reasonable corkscrews, imitating cork should pay 85% business income tax. At the very least! Not only it’s «fraudulent» to imitate cork, it is also an attack on the economy.

Tourism accounts for 5.8% of Portugal’s GDP. Around May, sometimes April, scandinavians start to arrive, little resistant to our southern European sun. From June to September, they come by the thousands, in everyday flights, be it low-cost companies or charters, and by train… During the whole year there are cruisers coming in. Lisboa, Algarve, Porto, Madeira or Fátima offer a broad variety: beach, business, culture, spirituality, etc.

A tourist sits on a café terrace of Augusta Street and asks for a wine. The employee, moody, offers him a bottle with an artificial sealer. What image does he take back to his own land from us? That Portuguese despise their own economy.

Unfortunately, Adega Cooperativa de Vila Real is not a sole case. What makes it even more serious is being a company that deals with many farmers, paying them the grapes and providing direct and indirect employment. Should have more respect by silviculturists and national industrials.

By choosing to use a fake cork, Adega Cooperativa de Vila Real refutes the encouragement of domestic products’ usage. Why the hell should I drink Portuguese wines? Why would I offer Douro, Alentejo, Bairrada wines… to a foreign friend?

The cork colored cylinders – besides looking alike something they are not – are made of synthetic materials, which have a negative impact on the environment. You can argue that they can be recycled. Yeah, but then comes in the cork: in addition of being recyclable it’s easily reutilizable. What’s more, cork production, aside the income and employment it generates – directly and indirectly –, is positive on the environment, fixating carbon and sustaining ecosystems.

Long goes the time where drinking wine was like feeding a million Portuguese. Pretty far, but employs many Portuguese. In 2012, wine accounted for 11% of food exportation. In the overall of abroad sales, wine had a weight of 1.6% – equaling 725 million euros.

And cork? The cork oak bark accounts for 2% of national exportation – 845.7 million euros for 189.3 thousand tons. Cork employs over 8.700 people.

Wouldn’t it be better if Portuguese supported each other? Silviculturists, many of them also winemakers or winegrowers deserve acknowledgment. Repeating, it’s not a sole case… but it doesn’t look good on a house with so many farmers, to replace cork for a piece of «swear-word».

Wine is Born Even From Friendship

Text João Barbosa | Translation Bruno Ferreira

The Portuguese have an immense capability of making up jokes. The British are subtle, somewhat cold and accurately intelligent. The German seem to have no sense of humor, but they do… who lacks it are the Swiss, were it not the Helvetic Confederation a nest of bankers. Germans have mood bland but make puns.

A girl friend told me – German, by the way – that Portuguese humor is sadistic. It’s true! We laugh at the others’ misfortune, albeit of a non-existent character. We laugh at ourselves, which I value – shows intelligence through self-knowledge, critical thinking and relativization.

Some phenomenon takes place, anywhere in the world, and the Portuguese have already made ten jokes in the first half-an-hour following the incident. Many times we’re cruel and unfair. There’s probably no Portuguese that hasn’t heard yet the “Mr Fonseca” joke. On his deathbed he called his sons and taught them a cunning:

– Never forget, that wine can be made even from grapes.

Mr. Fonseca probably never did exist – must have been a product of bad taste jesting, citing a real person, and dated. Reflects a time when mass-production was highly valued, disregarding the quality.

We tend to call “a friend”, someone we’ve known for a month, ignoring his/her general flaws and virtues. However, since everything has a beginning, we like to say we’re making friends with someone we just met. Acquaintance sounds Swiss.

Some days ago I went to Gambrinus – an historic restaurant in Lisboa downtown – to drink some beers with two friends. One of them escaped early and I stayed chatting with my other friend, along with some beers and croquettes… Not fat whatsoever: a croquette has practically the necessary daily calories for an adult man.

At some point we looked to our side and we saw a gentleman with an oysters plate. He asked for a bottle Moët & Chandon, which gave us the opportunity to start talking. My friend, even more sociable than me, asked him as to why did he pick that wine.

Because he liked it, what else?! Oh, you know… we have amazing sparkling wines… and whatnot… how’s the wine? Words turn into conversation and there we were, long after the scheduled time, talking to the gentleman.

A nice man, easy talking, polite… have I mentioned gentleman?… Well, our interlocutor produces wine in the very warm region of Granja-Amareleja. Climatology was brought up, as well as the tilling, history and cuisine of that region.

Honestly, I can’t precise how many quarters of an hour did the conversation last. Several at the very least, and so pleasant they were not enough, latched by family commitments. Portuguese’s ability to make friends, and honesty the wine deserves, provided us a fine moment.

On the way out, our good conversationalist offered us a bottle of his wine. I didn’t know it. Guadelim Reserva 2009, designation of origin Granja-Amarela. Powerful and involving, with the heat from those whereabouts and far from being a soup or jelly. Shows holm-oak wood – obviously inexistent – translating a good integration and identification.

What’s left of that conversation? A desire to know the vineyards’ territory from where the grapes that made Guadelim came and… a warm night in this cold winter, dining with friends.

By the way, Guadelim is the name of a river. It might be Godelim, from the Arabic, it means “fountain river”, and mixes with Germanic. Yes, even with dictionaries… water is made.