Food, Wine and Travel Blog

With so much flavor combined with substance and simplicity, it’s no surprise that Italian food is a perennial winner in world-favorite cuisines. And the nation’s many and varied, delicious pasta dishes are largely the reason why. As ever when it comes to food, Emilia Romagna has more than its fair share of tasty pasta specialties, […]

The familiar images of Portugal – Mateus Rosé, Port, and Madeira – do no more than hint at the incredible diversity of this wine country. Portugal is now a key exporter of premium – and super–premium–table wines, labels that can compete with the best of Rioja, Bordeaux, and Burgundy. It is a country of endless […]

In the 20th century, it seemed as if the quality revolution had bypassed the vineyards of northeastern Portugal. Remote and mountainous, Trás-os-Montes was forgotten as international hype coalesced around the Douro Valley, Alentejo, and the potent reds of Dão and Bairrada. As a result, very few wines, certainly premium labels, were sent abroad. Instead, Portugal’s […]

Even the most talented publicist would struggle to rebrand Madeira as a fashionable tipple. So we’ll save them the trouble: it isn’t! This venerable fortified wine, made on the island of Madeira for centuries, has less profile and global renown than Port or Sherry. Aside from a niche market in Portugal and select destinations abroad, […]

The best of authentic wine tourism: Alentejo A warm climate, spectacular scenery, and pristine beaches have made Portugal one of Europe’s leading tourist destinations, attracting millions of visitors to hotspots such as Lisbon, Oporto, and the Algarve. More recently, contemporary tasting rooms, vineyard-facing restaurants, and eco-friendly hotels have joined the beaches and monuments. So if […]

Many cultural differences polarize Spanish and Portuguese winegrowers, despite their close (at times, too close!) geographical proximity. For example, the Galicians have only recently started to take Trajadura – known as Treixadura across the border – seriously. In the 20th century, this obscure grape was rarely prioritized as one of the region’s key varieties. It […]

Time and time again, winegrowers in the Douro manage to confound our expectations. This is the home of Port: Europe’s leading sweet fortified wine. Most consumers, therefore, don’t expect to find anything else when they visit the cellars and quintas of this spectacularly beautiful region. Yet the Douro is no one-trick pony. In addition to […]

Of all Portugal’s great wine icons, the most underrated remains Vinho Verde. Produced on the hills that flank the Minho River, the province accounts for a seventh of the country’s annual wine harvest. Without it, the Portuguese summer tradition of ‘escaping’ to the mountains and beaches would be missing a vital element – quaffable and […]

Even a category as famous as Port can keep a secret or two. Indeed, most people imagine every bottle of this iconic fortified wine is a sweetened concoction of red grapes, sometimes aged for several decades before release. But it’s not true. White Port – the local trade’s aperitif of choice – has also been […]

Now, this is a conundrum. How can one of Europe’s most obscure grape varieties be a Portuguese legend? Cercial, also known as Cerceal, rarely appears on wine labels. Neither does the grape command much attention in sommelier circles: the vast majority of Cercial ‘disappears’ into a well-crafted blend of indigenous Portuguese white varieties. Its global […]

In the 20th century, it took a lot of work to make a case for obscure grape varieties like Bical. As global demand coalesced around familiar wine styles (Kiwi Sauvignon Blanc remains a household name), there was little appetite for the weird and wonderful. And so it must have been sorely tempting for Portuguese growers […]

Known as Italy’s Food Valley, with good reason, the western part of the Emilia Romagna region is home to some of the nation’s – and the world’s – favorite foods. Magnificent platters of local salami, prosciutto, mortadella, and many other of the area’s salumi, or cured meats, along with Parmigiano Reggiano, are a large part […]