Text Ilkka Sirén

It was the summer of 2009. I was working in Bierzo, Spain as a cellar hand / vineyard mule. For me it was like a dream come true. Just the fact that I was working outdoors in the vineyards, which in Finland is impossible, was a great experience. When I had some weekends off I used to borrow my friends car and drive down to the Douro valley. I knew the area from working there the vintage before in 2008. Going back and forth Douro and Bierzo, some of my favorite wine regions, is still one of my most precious memories. Wine, food, travel, no wife and no kids. Just me and my corkscrew. Long nights and blurred memories of people decanting a bottle of Taylor’s 1966 Vintage Port through a lemon juicer. A frat house of some sorts, full of aspiring young winemakers. Good times. Not that I’m complaining about my life now but you know. By that time I already was madly in love with Douro and was in fact planning to move there one day.

Taylor’s 1966 Vintage Port – Photo by Ilkka Sirén | All Rights Reserved

Decanting Port Wine Through a Lemon Juicer – Photo by Ilkka Sirén | All Rights Reserved

Being away from home long periods of time isn’t always easy though. I broke things off with my longtime girlfriend before I packed my bag and travelled to Bierzo like the little wine-vagabond that I am. Finland was in my rear-view mirror and I thought that was that. Oh how wrong was I. You know what they say; absence makes the heart grow fonder. It didn’t take too long for me to realize that I was a complete idiot to let my girlfriend go. A classic fool. Luckily before we broke-up she had bought a ticket to Spain and she didn’t want to waste a perfectly good trip, so we decided that she should come and visit me in Bierzo. I saw my window, my second chance to make things right. I knew I didn’t want to spend my life without her so I started planning my proposal.

Bierzo circa 2009 – Photo by Ilkka Sirén | All Rights Reserved

One week before my then ex-girlfriend came to Bierzo I drove down to Douro to scout some places where I could pop the question. I wanted it to be special and I just couldn’t think of a more special place than Douro. I drove around for one day visiting vineyards and searching a perfect spot. That night I slept in my car in Pinhão riverfront because I didn’t have a place to crash and I was saving my money for the gasoline to drive back to Douro the next week. But the reconnaissance mission was worth it because I did find a fantastic vineyard with a beautiful view down to the river. The next week I was driving the same old route from Bierzo through Galicia back to Douro with my future wife. She just didn’t know it.

Douro Valley – Photo by Ilkka Sirén | All Rights Reserved

To put a long story slightly shorter I took her to the special spot, popped the question and she said yes. Needless to say our personal relationship and our relationship with the Douro valley got indefinitely intermingled. We stayed that night in a cozy rural hotel and a wine estate Quinta do Pégo. I didn’t have a ring to give her so the next day we drove to Porto. After strolling around a bit I bought pretty much the cheapest “silver” ring I could find from Vila Nova de Gaia. I know, keeping it classy. But the whole trip was unique, fun and a great way to start our lives together. Much of that we owe to Portugal.

Dom Luís I Bridge – Photo by Ilkka Sirén | All Rights Reserved

A couple weeks ago by some freakish coincidence my father-in-law gave me wine to taste blind, which he almost never does. I taste it; definitely a port wine, probably LBV. But when I saw that the wine actually was Quinta do Pégo LBV 2009, the same quinta where we stayed when I proposed to my wife and even the same vintage. I have no idea where my father-in-law found the wine and he didn’t know the quinta so it was just pure coincidence…or was it? Either way, it made all these memories rise to surface like a vinous memory enhancer! How was the wine? Dense, fruity, tannic. A typical young LBV. Definitely needs some years to open up. But more than anything the wine was a good reminder that a wine doesn’t always need to be the most expensive or the best for it to really touch you. Although this was a pretty straightforward LBV it is one of the best LBV’s I have ever had. It made me genuinely happy.

Quinta do Pégo 2009 – Photo by Ilkka Sirén | All Rights Reserved

Contacts
Hotel Rural Qta. do Pégo
Valença do Douro
5120-493 Tabuaço
Tel. + 351 254 73 00 70
Fax + 351 254 73 00 79
E-mail: info@quintadopego.com
Website: www.quintadopego.com

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