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The maker of Barca Velha

~ saltofportugal ~ 2 Comments

Luís Sottomayor, the enologist who makes Barca Velha, an iconic Douro valley wine, is uncomfortable with his fame. He misses spending August in quiet solitude amidst the vines at Quinta da Leda, the large estate that produces most of the grapes used in Barca Velha. Today everybody wants to talk to him, journalists, sommeliers, and wine enthusiasts. They all want to discover the secret of Barca Velha.

Luís says the style was created by the legendary Fernando Nicolau de Almeida when he produced the first Barca Velha in 1952. Nicolau de Almeida traveled the Douro valley in search of grapes that could make an exceptional table wine and found them in a region called Douro Superior. He blended grapes from high altitudes that have acidity and freshness with those from low altitudes that have maturation, body, and color. This marriage of acidity and structure created a sublime wine that can age and improve for decades. 

Barca Velha is made with the best grapes that Sogrape, Portugal’s largest wine company, has in Douro Superior. The parcels are vinified separately and stored in casks. Luís creates a blend from the different barrels. If the resulting wine meets his exacting standards, he bottles it. Then the wait begins. He samples the wine with his team for four, five, six, sometimes seven years before deciding whether to label it Barca Velha or Reserva Especial. Since 1952, there have only been 20 vintages of Barca Velha and 17 of Reserva Especial. 

Luís says that some decisions are challenging but he was lucky to learn with the two masters who made Barca Velha before him, Fernando Nicolau de Almeida and José Maria Soares Franco. Luís was hired by Soares Franco in 1989 and became responsible for Barca Velha in 2007. 

“For how long should we store a Barca Velha?” we ask. Luís smiles and says he doesn’t like waiting too long to pull the cork from the heavy bottles that guard the precious wine. “Open it when you’re with good friends,” he recommends. Luís is a hunter, so he loves to pair Barca Velha with partridge or duck. “But the wine also can be enjoyed without food, especially by the fire on a cold winter night,” he says. 

We asked Luís about another remarkable Sogrape wine called Legado (the Portuguese word for legacy). “Barca Velha has a consistent style and is the expression of a large terroir,” says Luís. “Legado is the opposite. It comes from a small terroir– a vineyard planted in 1910 with eight hectares that produce only six or seven tons of grapes. Each vintage is a different chapter of the life of that vineyard.”

Luís grew up on a farm near Porto. His father, who studied enology in Dijon after the 2nd World War, worked in a port wine company. From an early age, Luís dreamed about being a winemaker. Now he makes wines that people dream about drinking.

Fire and rain

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On the last day of the year, there were fireworks on the beach. People enjoyed the impressive pyrotechnics. But the ocean did not stand still to stare at the sky; its waves kept rolling on the sand. 

On the first day of the new year, there was copious rain. The ocean, created by millions of years of precipitaton, rejoiced like a child who sees her mother after a long absence. The waves danced, and we watched in awe how a coastline known for its sunny days could be so beautiful in the rain.

We wish you a joyous New Year and hope you come to see the beauty of the Portuguese coastline, rain or shine.

Holiday cheer

~ saltofportugal ~ 5 Comments

The farmers market was bustling. The baker ran out of cornbread; the vegetable stalls were out of Christmas cabbages. At home, thick slices of salt codfish were soaked to be cooked and doused with fragrant olive oil. In a country with so many splendid wines, it’s hard to elect one to grace the table. But the choice was made. Pumpkin fritters and other delights are ready to be served. And most of all, there are friends and family coming to enjoy each others’ company in this beautiful corner of the world called Portugal.

A port wine toast

~ saltofportugal ~ 2 Comments

In much of the world, old vines are thorn out and replaced with new ones. But not in the Douro valley. There, old vines are nurtured and treasured. Their grapes are few in number and small in size, but they make sublime wines.

We raise this glass to wish you all health and longevity. And to remind us of what we can learn from the old vineyards that make this port. We can produce a lot when we’re young, but we need to age before we can make something precious. Cheers!

The poetic sea

~ saltofportugal ~ 7 Comments

“Sea, half of my soul is made from sea breeze,” says Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen in her poem Atlantic. In The Beginning of a Prayer, Filipa Leal writes, “Lord, fill my room with the high seas.”  These poets express with eloquence what all Portuguese feel–that the sea is vital to our life. 

We hope that the New Year is healthy and bright and that you can travel with ease to come experience the poetic radiance of the Portuguese sea.

10 years of Salt of Portugal!

~ saltofportugal ~ 23 Comments

Time flies by when we’re having fun. It’s hard to believe that we started Salt of Portugal one decade ago! 

It’s been a pleasure to travel from north to south in search of all that is glorious about Portugal. Thank you dear readers for sharing this journey with us. We hope your travels will bring you soon to this corner of the world. A place of castles and palaces, of mountains and valleys, of sand and sea. All bathed in warm light, all cooled by the breeze that carries the ocean’s salt, the salt of Portugal. 

Gifts from the past

~ saltofportugal ~ 7 Comments

Oh, how wonderful it is to spend a lazy Saturday in Lisbon! We started late, when the sun was already shinning with conviction, and drove to Vicentinas, an old tea shop in Rua de São Bento. A gentle push on the rickety door and we were greeted by a sweet aroma that invited us to enter. 

We sat at a table, enjoying a cup of strong Earl Grey tea, while waiting with undisguised impatience for our scones to arrive. The minutes passed by slowly, but the wait was well worth it. The freshly baked scones were perfect; crispy on the outside and buttery inside. 

It took all our willpower to resist ordering more scones. Feeling virtuous, we walked down Rua de São Bento to visit the numerous antique stores located in this neighborhood. The store owners are always there, eager to show their collections of objects from times gone by. There is always something interesting. And occasionally there is something exquisite, like a pair of elegant lemon squeezers. 

In the old days, luxury restaurants in Lisbon, like Tavares and Aviz, had a small tray of lemon squeezers prepared with fresh lemon halves wrapped in cheese cloth tied with a yellow bow. The waiters used them to season dishes by table side, turning the simple act of squeezing a lemon into a magical moment.

We walked home with this precious gift from the past, content with another lazy Saturday spent in Lisbon.

Guided by the stars

~ saltofportugal ~ 11 Comments

In the early 16th century, Lisbon was one of the world’s richest cities. A constant stream of caravels departed to far-away destinations like India and Brazil. Some of these ships perished tragically on the high seas. The ones that returned brought their hulls crammed with gold, silver, and spices. 

During the day, sailors relied on the sun to measure their latitude. At night, they were guided by the stars. Skilled pilots pointed sextants at the sky to estimate the ship’s position and evaluate its course. On the last night of the year, we too look at the stars for guidance on where we are and what lies ahead. We hope they can point us all to a blissful, healthy New Year that brings us back to Portugal.

Lisbon’s palatial surroundings

~ saltofportugal ~ 2 Comments

One curious fact about Lisbon is that there are few palaces in the center and many in the outskirts of the city. Before 1755, Lisbon was an overcrowded place where pestilence could quickly spread. So, the royal family and the aristocrats liked to build palaces away from the crowds, in places where the air was pure. 

King John I built the Sintra town palace in 1415, which became a perennial favorite of the royal family. King John V used the riches from Brazil to finance the construction of an imposing palace in Mafra in 1717.  Dom Pedro de Bragança, a prince who married his niece, Queen Dona Maria I, erected an exquisite palace in Queluz in 1747. 

We are lucky that all these palaces were built away from the capital. In November 1, 1755 a massive earthquake destroyed much of Lisbon, including the royal palace at Terreiro do Paco and many other architectural jewels. From the rubles of the earthquake, the Marquis of Pombal, King Dom José’s powerful prime minister, created a new city where large avenues replaced the meandering medieval streets. The old ornate palaces gave way to the simpler but sturdier buildings that we still see in the downtown district.

If you visit Lisbon, make some time to travel to its surroundings to experience the palatial riches of a time gone by.

The shark’s beach

~ saltofportugal ~ 2 Comments

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Roger Sobreiro, an American wine merchant of Portuguese descent, recommended a small restaurant called A Praia do Tubarão (the shark’s beach) that is his safe harbor when he visits Portugal. We drove to the picturesque town of Costa Nova to try it out.

The restaurant’s facade is painted with the traditional red and white stripes used to decorate fishermen houses. The same red and white palette dominates the cosy interior where Adriano Ferreira, the owner, was waiting for us. He has worked in Costa Nova for 50 years, first as a waiter and then, in the last three decades, together with his wife at A Praia do Tubarão.

“I hunt and fish and all hunters and fishermen are liars,” he said as a way of introduction. Despite this forewarning, we asked Adriano to choose our lunch menu.  “Most of our food is served in the pots where it is cooked: caldeiradas (boulliabaisses) , “ensopados,” and seafood rices. We follow two simple rules: everything is fresh and everything is cooked to order,” he explained.

Adriano went into the kitchen and returned with a plate of petinga (small sardines) and tiny fried balls of berbigão rice. Then, he poured two generous glasses of the wonderful Duas Quintas white from Ramos Pinto. The petinga was crisp, hot, luxuriously fresh and perfectly fried. The rice balls were flavorful and deeply satisfying.

We ate an “ensopado,” a plate made with fish, potatoes, onions, garlic, and olive oil. It is seasoned with “sal d’unto,” a salt and lard combination. It comes with a sauce called “alhada,” made from garlic, lemon and piri piri. The flavors blend to create a unique taste and aroma. The quality of the ingredients and the cooking is superb.

Dessert was a small bowl of the traditional “ovos moles,” a convent sweet made with egg yolks and sugar. The meal ended with a vibrant espresso made with Delta’s famous diamond blend.

We said goodbye to Adriano and promised to be back soon to this welcoming place that serves delicious traditional food.

A Praia do Tubarão is located at Rua José Estevão, 136, Costa Nova Prado, Ilhavo, tel. 234 369 602.