Although Google Maps sucks in data from all over, what it shows me on my phone is often wrong here in Portugal. It often suggests driving or walking down streets that don’t exist, or which are one-way in the opposite direction. Its opening hours for stores are not reliable, and I have dined well at restaurants that Google doesn’t see.
I take satisfaction in this because it means there is still value in living somewhere and talking to people. There is value in the local.
That being said, Google did lead me and my friend Phil to a nice winery about 45 minutes from our home here in Odemira. I first asked a wine-guy at a store here, but the wineries he suggested were in and around Beja, a city at least two hours northwest from Odemira. I did not want to drive that far.
Google suggested just two, each about 45 minutes away. And only one had a telephone number. So on that basis, we headed out last Sunday morning to the Herdade do Cebolal, which more or less means the “farm of the onion field.”
Phil is an old friend and has the enviable job of finding wine he believes he can sell, buying it, and then importing it to the United States. He has been doing this for three decades. He specializes in wines from southern France and northern Spain. We met in the early 1980s, when we both were living in the Basque country in Northern Spain.
His job takes him to Europe a few times a year. He decided to route his current trip through Portugal so he could visit me and my family. While his visit was primarily about pleasure, he mentioned he wouldn’t mind visiting a winery.
Our drive to Cebolal was nice. We went along less-traveled country roads with cork trees and fields on each side.
Luis welcomed us. You can see him here on the website for the vineyard. He explained that the farm had been in his family for many generations and that he and some other family members had moved back from Lisbon to manage it.
I had called Luis the previous day and he had been very solicitous. At first he apologized and said he wasn’t available. Then he called me back later to say we could come after all.
He showed us around the wine-making area which was inside a white building on the edge of fields. It had a room with concrete floors and stainless steel tanks, and other rooms with stacked wooden barrels of varying sizes. He had us try wines both from both. With the barrels, he used a plastic pipette to draw the liquid out and then let out into our glasses. He had us taste the same wine from a tank and then after aging some in barrels. We probably spent an hour and a half doing this. We also walked around outside where the fields stretched in all directions. The cork trees, which are so typical here, were very visible as well as the rows of grape vines.
I found myself very impressed with this winery we had chosen just for its proximity. He had several hundred acres, and he said they harvested and made cork, pinenuts, figs, olives, honey and some other products from the land, as well as wine. The wine he makes using more natural, less industrial methods sometimes called low intervention. He said he grew more than 30 grape varieties in an effort to experiment with what is best. He had climate change on his mind. He wanted to make wine in ways that would fit warmer weather, and wines that would drink better in warmer weather. It was a big operation, and I was surprised he had time for us.
I also wondered about the economics. I wondered how easy it was to break even or make some money on all this, given that his expenses must be pretty high. He said he exported a good deal and named his buyers. Phil knew them.
After showing us where the wine was made, he took us upstairs and put out a platter of bread with sausages and cheese, along with honey and other sweet things to accompany them. He then served us samples of his wines from labeled-bottles so we could compare. The sausages were some of the most enjoyable I have had. The wines were really good.
There was no charge for any of this, and I found myself wondering if he can or does treat every visitor like this? At the very least, he had used up two hours of his time on a Sunday morning. Phil had asked me not to let Luis know that he, Phil, was in the business. But perhaps Luis figured this out while we were there because Phil’s questions and comments were so knowledgeable. I bought a half a dozen bottles, in part to thank Luis for his time. I also just liked the wines a lot.
Speaking of wine, I was struck by how differently Phil tasted wine than I did. For me, wine was a sensual pleasure. For Phil, it was a business. So while he had taste on his mind when he raised a glass, he was also always asking himself: can I sell it? This led him to immediately consider price, and things like the appeal of a label and bottle shape. He was drawn to taste the cheaper wines, because he wore likely to find something that could be priced attractively in The United States.
Wine is cheap here in Portugal. A glass at a bar or restaurant can just be a dollar or even less. But wine bought wholesale for a few dollars, can end up having to be priced at $15 or so on a shelf in The United States, once transportation, taxes and more are added it. One bottle I bought from Herdade cost €15. It would need to be priced at close to $30 in the states, Phil said, depending on the wholesale price.
Afterwards the visit, we drove home, using Google Maps of course. While Google had found Luis and his family’s winery, it had missed many others. Luis said there were a dozen or so other wine makers in the area. Perhaps I can visit some of those, another day.
Tummy Time: Relishing An Inner Organ.
The noses of small children often wrinkle in distaste at the mere idea of eating liver, the dark red organ, charged with a variety of important tasks in our body related to our blood.
My own nose is liable to do the same. I don’t often order liver dishes, although I have been known to in the spirit of adventure.
But disadvantages can be advantageous. My still incomplete knowledge of Portuguese prompted me to order this dish, Cachola, when I saw it on the menu as one of two “plates of the day”. I saw it on a neighboring table and it looked good. Chunks of meat in thick, black sauce surrounded by potatoes. I had looked up Cachola with no luck on my phone and the waiter, who was also the owner of the restaurant, was standing before me unsmiling, clearly eager, in his almost-full restaurant, for me to give him my order. I figured it was stewed meat of some time.
Turned out to be liver. But it was really good. Here is a link to a really nice video of a grandmother-type lady explaining how to make Cachola and telling that this is a dish typical to the Alentejo and Odemira in particular. So that’s cool. I didn’t know that when I ordered it.
Because this was a “plate of the day,” the whole lunch was 10 euros, including wine, bread and olives.
Great photos. I use Google Maps in USA religiously and it is almost always correct. I think the Europeans use it less often. I noticed that when I visited you in Czechia. Also, I just cycled across the Mississippi Gulf Coast, hardly the cheapest place in America, and it is obvious that it pays to take the airplane across the ocean to Europe just to eat and drink and stay in hotels. They are that much cheaper.
Hi Alex,
More wines from Portugal are selling in the US. I like them.
On another matter have you ever formed an opinion about Braess' Paradox. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess%27s_paradox? It basically says that removal of a grade separated road from an urban grid can reduce travel times. The SF Embarcadero and Octavia Blvd are examples. Also Seoul's removal of the Cheongecheong Expressway is another; so is Milwaukee's Park East removal. John Norquist