Wine from Portugal wants you to taste the passion from the Dão this September, and are offering you a mixed case of 6 wines for just £34.99.

The 6 wines include:
Casa de Santar Branco Dão Doc 2009 from Dão Sul
Quinta da Falorca Tinto Dão DOC 2006
Quinta de São Simão da Aguieira Tinto Dão DOC 2005 from Borges
Duque de Viseu Branco Dão DOC2009 from Quinta dos Carvalhais
Quinta da Garrida Reserva Dão DOC 2008 from Aliança
Porta dos Cavaleiros Tinto Dão DOC 2007 from Caves São Joao

For further information click here

Portovino are sponsoring The Jesmond Dene Real Tennis Club Doubles Tournament on 23rd, 24th, and 25th September 2011. Members of the public are very welcome to head along and watch the games, you may even be encouraged to take up a game or two!

There will be a dinner on Saturday night which will feature Portovino Wines and the company will also be presenting some of their fine wines to the lucky winners.

Real Tennis is one of the worlds oldest racquet sports and is still played in over 30 clubs in the UK. The court at Jesmond Dene was founded in 1894 and the Invitation Doubles tournament attracts players from many UK clubs. A weekend of doubles matches is played with teams with one local played paired with a visitor.

Jesmond Dene Real Tennis Club, Mathew Bank, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Tel: 01912 816 894.

Quinta de Azevedo is a deliciously fresh and fruity wine and is on offer in Majestic – buy 2 bottles save £2 until the end of August and Waitrose – save £1.50 to until 16 August.

Quinta de Azevedo has a huge reputation for making top quality Vinho Verde. It is probably the most well known and popular Vino Verde in the UK. It’s such a versatile wine; it is the perfect aperitif to drink on its own or to enjoy with seafood, chicken or lighter dishes.

So what are you waiting for? It’s the perfect excuse to stock up for the summer.

To find you local stockist click here.

Portuguese Wine Dinner

Thurs 23rd June, 7.30pm

at

55 Exmouth Market, London EC1

4 course tasting menu with wine

Tickets £45

(Includes all food and wine)

For bookings call Marcus on 07747 777 176 / hello@bicawineandfood.com

After much hype and anticipation, Tom Cannavan’s 50 Great Portuguese wines selection was unveiled on the 6th June at 11am, in London at the Portuguese Ambassador’s Residence in Belgrave Square.

Fabulous day; Excellent wines; Especially intriguing whites – just some of the comments received on Twitter during the tasting.

Tina Gellie
Chief Sub-Editor, Decanter
‘Just to say I really loved the 50 Great tasting yesterday. It’s one of my favourite tastings of the year.’

Charles Metcalfe, thewinesinger ‘Wonderful Portuguese wines on show at Tom Cannavan’s #50great wine selection. Catch it at the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh this Wed.’

Martin Irons, ”One of the best tasting I’ve ever been to”. @VPwine #50great @winepages

Robert Giorgione, robertgiorgione @winepages @vpwine great selection of #Portuguese #wine

“This event aims to promote Portuguese wines in a more premium sector in a market where 10 years ago few people really believed that Portugal could produce top quality wines. This selection of 50 wines which is now in its seventh year was this year selected by Tom Cannavan and demonstrates the fantastic potential that Portugal has to produce world class wines”. Says Tania Oliveira, Area Manager UK

The first generic to use QR codes on its tasting brochure and on the individual wines gave visitors the opportunity to scan the code, send requests for information direct to the producers, give feedback about the tasting and request a copy of the tasting brochure. Once again reaffirming ViniPortugal’s position as being at the forefront of social media.

Tom was crowned ViniPortugal’s Journalist of the year 2010 and since then he has tasted his way around Portugal to find his ultimate top 50 wines.

Tom says “From the crisp and mineral white wines of the verdant north, to the sultry reds of the Mediterranean south, Portugal’s long, thin strip of coast and country can produce the whole gamut of wine styles. Combine that with a stock-pot of indigenous old vines and a wine industry that is rushing to improve those whilst exploring new – and sometimes surprising – directions, and Portugal’s relevance and fascination for the wine lover is assured.”

The list has been under wraps until now, but the exciting line up of new and classic wines makes it well worth the wait.

To download the tasting brochure visit www.jkmarketing.co.uk

Wines of Portugal had some fantastic events, promotions and tastings all over the UK to help raise awareness of National Wine Month in May, we hope you took full advantage of them and experienced some new and exciting wines.

Below is a video showing how Vinoteca celebrated National Wine Month, if you have any pictures or videos from any tastings or events you attended, we’d love to hear from you! Please send them to viniportugal@jkmarketing.co.uk.

It scooped this category last year, yet people still haven’t got the message, which means the cheapest capital city in Western Europe remains the same: sexy-sultry, stuffed with fab fish and fado joints and devoid of tourists. Slung like a hammock between the twin hills of Alfama and Chiado, Lisbon is an appropriately laid-back spot. Book at boutique B&B The House, next to Basilica da Estrela (doubles from £57, room only: 00 351 21 804 2043 “http://www.thehouse.pt”); tour the madly Gothic Jeronimos Monastery (free); and scoff a custard tart at the nearby Antiga Confeitaria cafe (75p: Rua de Belem), Easy Jet (www.easyjet.com) flies from Luton, Liverpool, Bristol, Gatwick and Edinburgh. Sunday Times Travel June 2011

Easter is traditionally a time associated with baking. If you’re planning to embrace tradition, we’ve got the perfect wine for you to serve with cakes and pastries: a Portuguese dessert wine called Moscatel de Setúbal.

It’s made predominantly from muscat grapes, so it has sweet and floral notes, and is fortified and aged in oak for 8 years, which gives the lighter notes time to deepen into something more interesting and caramel-like.

Its rich fruitiness perfectly complements cream, fruit and pastry-based dishes, and is a natural partner for Portuguese custard tarts.

Click here to find your nearest stockist Bacalhôa Moscatel de Setúbal.

You can read this article in the latest Jamie Oliver magazine

“Thank you very much for inviting me here. It is always a pleasure to visit Portugal, but unfortunately for you, people with Portugal and Portuguese products to sell, I always feel rather adventurous.

Portugal does still feel as though it is off the beaten track. It’s an exotic choice as a holiday destination for most nationalities – with the sole exception of the appeal of the Algarve, arguably the least ‘Portuguese’ of Portuguese regions, and its appeal to golfers.

Of course this has nothing to do with what Portugal has to offer. It is clear that Portugal has many areas of outstanding natural beauty. I have always thought that such pousadas as I have seen are more appealing than the average Spanish parador. And recently, really very recently, Portugal’s gastronomic scene has been dramatically revived. (I was delighted last weekend to see a whole page of the International Herald Tribune devoted to eating out in Lisbon’s smart new restaurants.)

But communicating all this is clearly difficult because I meet remarkably few people in my country or the US who know very much at all about visiting Portugal, eating Portuguese food or drinking Portuguese wine.

Why is this? It’s not just because Portugal is not on the way anywhere. The same could be said to be true of Spain, a hugely popular tourist destination and an increasingly recognised and celebrated source of fine wine.

As you are all keenly aware, it is certainly not because Portugal does not have a noble history. But alas very few non-Portuguese are even aware of Portugal’s glorious past as one of the world’s leading trading nations.

Portugal, Portuguese food and wine are, alas, a secret.
So how do we go about changing this? Which I assume most people in this room would like to do?…”

Jancis Robinson

If you would like to read the full speech, please click here to download the file.

Sandra Tavares da Silva and husband Jorge Serodio Borges embarked on Wine & Soul in 2001, their own project in Portugal’s Pinhão Valley.

Sandra is winemaker at both Vale Dona Maria with Cristiano Van Zellar and her family home, Quinta de Chocapalha in Estremadura. Jorge, formerly winemaker at Niepoort, works on a number of new projects in the Douro as well as Quinta do Passadouro.

They initially bought a wonderful, old port lodge and rebuilt the lagares (stone troughs for foot treading and fermentation). In the beginning they purchased fruit from selected sites in the Pinhão Valley until in 2003 they bought a spectacular vineyard, planted with ancient, 76-year-old vines, across thirty varieties.

Of all the wines you make, which is your favourite?
“Pintas Douro Red”

3 words to describe this favourite wine?
“Elegant, fresh and complexity”

What international food would you match with it?
“Pintas matches very well with cheeses, pastas and rich meat dishes, try roast duck with green herbs and a light dose of plum sauce.”

What do you do when you’re not making wine?
“Spoiling my 3 sons”

If you want to find a bottle of Pintas please click here, let us know what food you matched with it and what you thought.