In mid-July, my wife Evi and I found ourselves in Portugal once again. The time between visits simply shouldn't be too long … ;)
Our first appointment took us to Pinhais in Matosinhos, north of Porto, where Nuno Rocha, the new managing director, had good news to announce: After occasional shortages that required a certain amount of ingenuity, Pinhais is working with fresh sardines again this year. The company is now much better organized and works – like other professionals, e.g. La Belle-Iloise in Brittany – with buyers who can purchase fresh fish from the Algarve in the south all the way to Galicia in the north at the very best conditions.
They also have several new projects in the pipeline: They are working on the first “Vintage Sardines Made in Portugal” and on a new design for the Pinhais brand, which will soon also come to market wrapped in paper and cellophane.
Next was actually a lunch date with Pedro Araujo from Quinta do Ameal at Salta o Muro, but he couldn't make it in time for lunch, so we ate without him. His wines were, however, part of the package: With the Robalho (sea bass), we drank the 2017 Loureiro from Quinta do Ameal, which we liked very much. It is even fresher, leaner and more mineral than the 2016. A case is already on its way.
Later that afternoon, we finally met Pedro at Fundação Serralves, a modern museum with a magnificent garden. Here we could sit on the terrace in the shade, discuss business and enjoy the view.
In the evening, we went to the Vinho Verde Wine Fest, one of the main reasons for the trip. We had our first appointment there with Márcio Lopes, a rising star in the Vinho Verde scene, who also studied under the “Vinho Verde Pope” Anselmo Mendes and founded the Pequenos Rebentos brand (the little seeds) as a garage winemaker. He had already sent us samples to Berlin, and everything we had tried was good. Let's see if we can make something out of it.
Otherwise, the Wine Fest was not that interesting for us, so we preferred to end the evening at our regular restaurant O Gaveto in Matosinhos ...
The next day, we set off from Porto towards Lisbon. Our first stop took us near Aveiro to Liporfir, a small Bacalhau processing factory and a pure family business with a total of 16 employees. By the way, Bacalhau, the beloved national dish of the Portuguese, does not come from domestic waters in 99% of cases, but from Iceland or Norway. Liporfir imports the fish from Iceland, as the fish is never frozen there, and fishing is still a family affair: The boats are usually manned by 3 generations – grandfather, father and son. Everyone cares about the sea, they respect the enormous ecosystem that has fed them and their families for centuries, and fishing flows through their veins from birth.
And so cod becomes the famous Bacalhau:
After being caught, the fish is deboned, salted and air-dried. Then it is sent to Portugal in large boxes, where it arrives still moist. This still moist dried fish is now transformed by Liporfir (and colleagues) into dry, very long-lasting Bacalhau. For this, it is washed by hand and freed from impurities, then portioned into different pieces according to certain quality criteria, subsequently salted again with fine salt from Aveiro (similar to the quality of Fleur de Sel), and finally stored to dry on pine wood frames in special, specifically ventilated chambers. This can take up to a month.
To determine whether the Bacalhau is finished and meets the quality requirements of the brand, several senses are used, almost all senses are required:
- The sense of touch: by touching, consistency, flexibility and breaking point are checked,
- Sight: the color is checked with the eyes,
- Smell: of course, the smell must also be right.
Canned Bacalhau, which we also distribute, has not been around at Liporfir for that long – previously it was mainly sold in pieces on the domestic market. Now, however, the can business is doing well and new recipes are already in the works. As a complement to the already existing recipes – with chickpeas, with black-eyed beans, grilled with garlic – there will probably soon be Bacalahau with algae.
The next appointment of the day took us to Luís Patrão from Vadio (= Vagabund), a small but very interesting project in the Bairrada region, which is run by Luís Patrão and his wife Eduarda, and which we have been observing for several years.
Luís is already quite famous in Portugal because he worked for a long time as a winemaker at Esporão in the Alentejo before starting his own project with Vadio. He is also employed at Coelheiros in the Alentejo, so he is really very busy.
This permanent job gives him the necessary security to take care of Vadio with time and leisure, which he does slowly and conscientiously. From the currently 4.5 hectares of vineyard, he wants to grow to 10, because that would be the perfect size for his small team.
The good thing about Vadio: The wines are allowed to age in the cellar for a very long time and are only sold very late. So the current “little” Vadio Tinto is, for example, the 2015 vintage. By the way, it tastes very, very good. All the red wines from Vadio are made from the Baga grape, the whites from Bical and Cercial. The Espumantes are also very interesting. The base wines are Soleras from more than 10 vintages, which remain on the lees for 18 to 24 months before disgorgement, which ensures great complexity. Luís took us into the very clean and state-of-the-art cellar, where we tasted the 2016 reds, which will be bottled next. They are at least just as good as the 2015s.
The subsequent lunch – because after all, you can't drink all day without something in your stomach – consisted of the Portuguese version of Spanish suckling pig, the “Leitão”. Further wines from Luís were served with it: the two Espumantes for the aperitif. We were particularly impressed by the Espumante Brut Rosé. The red wines are excellent, both the entry-level wine and the “Grande Vadio”. The whites are also very good, although it might be difficult to sell them to men or women in Germany.
Back in Lisbon, after breakfast, we walked to “Downtown” to Conserveira de Lisboa to check the status of our order. Then we played the tourists and simply walked through the city, buying 3 cans of tuna from the Conservas store of the Azorean company Corretora, which we will probably soon add to our assortment. As a complement to Santa Catarina, because they make everything that Santa Catarina does not: tuna with tomato, with spicy tomato, and in spicy olive oil.
In the evening, we went to Vinho ao Vivo as planned, where we had met up with our Berlin friends Anabela and Marion from Anabelas Kitchen. Here we also met Tiago Teles (Maria da Graça), Antonio Madeira, Álvaro Castro, Sergio Nuno from Quinta das Bageiras and Miguel Louro from Quinta do Mouro. All in all, the wine festival is a rather small festival for locals. Very nice with a great backdrop, but Simplesmente Vinho is worth more for us.
