Terrus Wine

Um vinho perfeito para o inverno / A perfect winter wine

2011-12-22T21:00:00.024Z

A mais recente nota de prova sobre o Terrus 2007, desta vez no site da Maria João de Almeida.

Terrus tinto 2007 (Douro) - (Provado em Novembro de 2011)

Um excelente tinto do Douro, com a fruta de qualidade a sobressair no conjunto, bem casada com a madeira onde estagiou. Sente-se aqui o poder do Douro, mas com elegância, num corpo complexo e sofisticado.

Nota: 85 Pontos

*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***

The most recent review of Terrus 2007, this time on the website of Maria João de Almeida.

Terrus tinto 2007 (Douro) - (Tasted in November 2011)

An excellent red from the Douro, with fruit that stands out in the ensemble, and is well combined with the wood in which it aged. In this wine one can feel the power of the Douro, but with elegance, in a complex and sophisticated body.

Grade: 85 Points

Encher os sentidos / Filling the senses

2011-09-29T19:13:00.008+01:00

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

a pública recomenda: Encher os sentidos, Manuel Carvalho, Pública 25.09.11, p.6

Terrus 2007

Pela intensidade aromática e opulência na boca, este vinho parece mais um Douro do Cima Corgo do que da freguesia que situa o limite ocidental da região. Proveniente de solos graníticos e de vinhas velhas, é um tinto com carácter, com sugestões de framboesa bem combinada com notas da barrica e da garrafa, boca marcada por uma boa estrutura de taninos já numa razoável fase de maciez e um final de prova com classe. Um vinho que enche os sentidos, bom para acompanhar pratos de sabor intenso, excelente para deixar mais alguns na cave, onde vai sem duvida aprimorar as suas qualidades.

( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) )

pública recommends: Filling the Senses, Manuel Carvalho, Pública magazine 25.09.11, p.6

Terrus 2007

For its aromatic intensity and its opulent taste, this seems more like a Douro wine from the northern bank of the river, than one from the parish that delineates the region’s western boundary. Coming from granitic soils and old vines, this is a red wine with character, with hints of raspberry that blend well with the notes of the barrel and the bottle. The taste is marked by a good tannic structure at a good stage of softness and a finish with class. This is a wine that fills the senses, good for accompanying dishes of intense flavour, and excellent to leave a few bottles in the cellar, where it will undoubtedly enhance its qualities.

good things come to those who wait

2011-09-17T11:39:00.009+01:00

Saiu uma nova crítica do Terrus 2007, no último número da Revista de Vinhos:

Terrus Douro tinto 2007

17,0 valores

Cor profunda de grande impacto visual, aroma cheio, com muita fruta madura mas um perfil austero e químico de grande classe. Muito boa a prova de boca, com taninos de luxo e belos aromas. Muito bem. (14%)

Revista de Vinhos, Setembro 2011, João Paulo Martins

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A new review of Terrus 2007 appeared in the Portuguese wine magazine Revista de Vinhos:

Terrus Douro red 2007

17 points

Has deep colour with great visual impact, full aroma, with a lot of mature fruit but an austere and chemical profile of great class. Very good taste in the mouth, with luxurious tannins and beautiful aromas. Very good. (14%)

Revista de Vinhos, September 2011, João Paulo Martins

Nota sobre Terrus 2007 na revista Sabores do jornal Expresso, Junho 2011, por João Paulo Martins

2011-08-09T20:39:00.003+01:00

a review of Terrus, from Sarah Ahmed, The Wine Detective

2011-05-13T23:38:00.005+01:00

Terrus 2005 – the first vintage of this young vine but co-fermented (because the quantities are so small) blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Sousao with 5% Cabernet Sauv, 5% Syrah. Aged in 100% new oak simply because it was the first year and everything was new, it sports a cedary, spicy, slightly gamey nose. A succulent palate shows juicy blackberry and blackcurrant on the attack, joined by red fruits on the mid-palate and minerals on the finish. [...] An impressive debut. A winery to watch.

Terrus 2007 – a deeper colour with lovely freshness to the nose, again blackcurrant very much to the fore. Very juicy in the mouth with firm but fine, polished tannins. Again, very promising.

Terrus 2008 – Touriga Franca matured very late in this vintage so it didn’t make the cut in 2008. A really classic mineral-sluiced, fresh and lifted 2008. It shows floral/white pepper notes to its predominantly red fruits, shot with minerals. Very bright, fresh, mineral and pure. Very good.

Sarah Ahmed, The Wine Detective, July 2010

The rest of the article, including reviews of other Douro4U wines, can be found here.

Passar ao lado

2011-05-09T00:00:00.001+01:00

"Terrus 05 - complexidade aromática, acidez incrível, potência de boca, final muito longo, grande harmonia. Enologia do Francisco Montenegro. Um dos grandes vinhos produzidos no Douro em 2005 e um dos meus preferidos. Tem mais 10 anos pela frente. Surpreendentemente passou ao lado da crítica. Estavam distraídos? Nota 18,5 (noutra 18,5/17,5)."

Enófilo Militante, blog, Francisco M. Barão da Cunha, Abril 2011

2011-05-01T10:47:00.001+01:00

A poem by CZESLAW MILOSZ, translated by Robert Hass

Late Ripeness

Not soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year,

I felt a door opening in me and I entered

the clarity of early morning.

One after another my former lives were departing,

like ships, together with their sorrow.

And the countries, cities, gardens, the bays of seas

assigned to my brush came closer,

ready now to be described better than they were before.

I was not separated from people,

grief and pity joined us.

We forget - I kept saying – that we are all children of the King.

For where we come from there is no division

into Yes and No, into is, was, and will be.

We were miserable, we used no more than a hundredth part

of the gift we received for our long journey.

Moments from yesterday and from centuries ago –

a sword blow, the painting of eyelashes before a mirror

of polished metal, a lethal musket shot, a caravel

staving its hull against a reef – they dwell in us,

waiting for a fulfillment.

I knew, always, that I would be a worker in the vineyard,

as are all men and women living at the same time,

whether they are aware of it or not.

From New and Collected Poems 1931-2001 by Czeslaw Milosz (Penguin)

Ls15374

2011-04-24T13:05:00.009+01:00

Esta é uma curta-metragem que fiz com a minha amiga Kathleen Pullum no verão de 2009.

Conheci a Kath num workshop de filmes documentário em 2008. Durante esse workshop o nosso grupo (mais dois rapazes, o Isaac Marrero e o Uilleam Blacker) fez um documentário sobre um imigrante romeno em Londres. A Kath e eu continuámos a trabalhar juntas, e no verão de 2009 queríamos criar uma curta para um concurso cujo tema era “controle”. Inicialmente sugeri fazermos um filme sobre a minha mãe, uma self-confessed control freak. O projecto, não sei bem como, foi evoluindo e acabámos por sempre fazer um filme sobre a minha mãe, mas olhando para o tema de “controle” de uma perspectiva.

O filme não foi escolhido para o concurso, mas continuo a achar a historia interessante, em termos pessoais e da origem dum produto, o Terrus. Mas eu sou suspeita, é claro.

This is a short documentary film that I made with my friend Kathleen Pullum in the summer of 2009.

I met Kath when we both took part in a workshop on documentary filmmaking, as a result of which our group (which included two other guys, Isaac Marrero and Uilleam Blacker) made a film about a Romanian living in London. Kath and I continued to work together, so it was that in the summer of 2009 we wanted to make a short for a competition whose theme was “control”. Initially I suggested that we make a film about my mother, a self-confessed control freak, but, somehow, the project evolved so that we did end up making a film about my mother, but looking at the theme of “control” from another perspective.

The film didn’t make the competition shortlist, but I continue to think it presents an interesting story, both on a personal level and on the origin of a product, i.e. Terrus, but of course I am biased.

Poukaterra

2011-04-04T23:17:00.010+01:00

O comboio é um escorrega que baloiça saloio

Entre choques de trigos e cheias, passeantes de choupos da segunda-feira

Pouka terra pouka terra

Pontes, postes, sanitários- banheiras e laranjeiras anãs dopadas

Em condomínios fechados

Na berma dos carris, carruagens abandonadas

Quanto falta para (não) chegar a casa?

Pouka terra pouka terra pouka terra

Gruas, ruídos, estantes de rumores

Cabos, fins, exaustores

Não me canso não me canso não me canso

Nem alcanço a próxima paragem

A pasta do fiscal, um sinal e sinto-me picada

Por um roxo improvável na janela da fachada

Uma água em ângulo escaleno, contraceno com a bandeira de Portugal

E vedações, roupas a secar

Um presidente solidário, não se esqueça de votar

E logo recomeça o jogo aos dados

Dos quarteirões homologados

Kosmos intermarché

Supra-elevadas, matas, tanques

Containers vadios

Vazios e Graffitis, romãs e julietas

Vapor que não é neblina, nicotinas devaneadas

Janelas alistadas e mais vapor

Pavor misto

AUTO-LAVAGEM:

Uma viagem de comboio é isto

O resto é paisagem.

E antes que a Vasco da Gama acorde o último peixe

Vejo o feixe

De luxo do Oriente engolido pela manhã nascente.

E no jornal mais uma guerra

Pouka terra pouka terra pouka terra

_______________________________________

Paola D'Agostino (Mato de Miranda, 10/01/2011)

Spring in Régua

2011-03-30T00:02:00.003+01:00

Outra critica | Another review

2011-03-18T01:03:00.004Z

Esta vez na revista Paixão pelo Vinho | Wine Passion:

Terrus, DOC Tinto 2006

15,5

Cor: Rubi intenso, limpo.

Aroma: Fresco, frutos vermelhos, ligeiro vegetal, especiarias.

Sabor: acidez refrescante, taninos algo secos, frutos pretos mais evidentes, termina longo.

_________________________________________________

This time in the magazine Paixao pelo Vinho | Wine Passion:

Terrus, DOC Red 2006

15.5

Colour: Clean, intense ruby colour.

Aroma: Fresh, red fruits, slight vegetable, spices.

Flavour: Refreshing acidity, somewhat dry tannins, more noticeable black fruits, long finish.

2011-01-30T20:00:00.003Z

E o Terrus 2006 também teve uma crítica muito positiva, do Miguel Pereira no seu site Pingamor:

Terrus tinto 2006

Temos aqui mais uma nova marca douriense, sendo este vinho a segunda colheita consecutiva da casa. Projecto familiar, tem a Quinta do Fundo da Vila, Baixo Corgo, como cenário e terroir destes vinhos que prometem dar que falar. É um dos produtores integrados no Douro4U, um projecto criado por 5 empresas/produtores para divulgação dos seus vinhos. A enologia, como se passa nos restantes produtores, está a cargo de Francisco Montenegro, neste caso sobrinho de Maria da Assunção Foy, proprietária da quinta.

Fiquei rendido ao vinho. As uvas de Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Sousão e outras, provenientes de um solo granítico e com estágio de cerca de 12 meses em barricas de carvalho francês, deram origem a um belíssimo vinho, com uma elegância impressionante. Sentimos no copo a calma, a fruta madura e fina, as especiarias que nos trazem complexidade, a acidez que nos puxa para a mesa. Uma excelente surpresa, uma aposta mais que certa para quem busca muita qualidade e muita elegência. Fiquei fã. (93)

[Obrigado ao Ricardo Maneira por nos ter chamado a atenção a esta crítica.]

Keeping it in the Family

2011-01-30T19:31:00.003Z

O Bétula 2009, vinho branco de Catarina Montenegro (sobrinha da São Foy) recebeu um bela critica da Maria João de Almeida:

Bétula branco 2009 (Douro) – Catarina Montenegro (Provado em Janeiro de 2011)

No aroma revela notas de fruta tropical madura, apontamentos vegetais e alguma especiaria. No paladar é cativante e envolvente, revelando fruta de qualidade e mineralidade que lhe dá elegância. Boa acidez e madeira bem integrada. Muito gastronómico.

Nota: 84 Pontos

Siga este link para ver mais.

As cores do Outono (cont'd)

2010-12-12T09:48:00.003Z

Flower Power www.flowerpower.com.pt

Michelle Letowska and Vivien Opiolka

2010-11-29T20:02:00.010Z

For a few years now my mother has started pointing out how much labour goes into making food and drink. Anything we put on our table, be that a plate of vegetables, a piece of meat, or a bottle of wine. I’m too lazy even to cook, which is actually small effort compared to the work that goes into getting food and drink to the point of being ready to be sold, or cooked, or opened. I don’t know whether my mother knew this all along, or whether she realised this when she started working on the land she had inherited with the view to planting a vineyard with the idea of making wine, or whether she stopped taking this fact for granted.

It seems fitting, with Thanksgiving just passed and with Christmas at the gates, for me to be thankful, truly, for whatever blessings I have been graced with, which are always many, I think.

I am writing here about Vivien and Michelle because they have both been to Fundo de Vila and have contributed a little to the farm and to the making of Terrus. I co-organised the ZAAT Mostra de Artes Visuais e Sonoras 010 www.zaat.net, which is currently taking place in Lisbon, and I invited Michelle and Vivien, both artists, to exhibit some of their works. Their exhibition “Intimacy & Solitude” is at the architects’ office 71Arquitectos www.71arquitectos.com, and below are some photographs.

Drawings by Michelle Letowska. Photographs by Vivien Opiolka.

As cores do Outono

2010-11-08T21:15:00.002Z

Maio é o mês das flores

2010-05-09T19:34:00.005+01:00

If April can be the cruelest month May can turn into the kindest. Eva joined me at Fundo de Vila for the weekend, at times sunny, at times stormy. The light of this evening is mixed and the greens of the new leaves are fresh and soft. All the usual signs of Spring, birds chirping, plants flowering, snakes coming out of holes in the walls and the vines developing at an accelerated rate and throwing tendrils to the wire and each other.

We have been doing some Spring cleaning in Casa da Eva, getting it ready for the Summer. Chris started it last weekend and was disappointed to have to leave the job unfinished. And through all of last week Zé do Convento and Marco were working solid on turning a centenary "lagar" into a refreshing pool for the very hot days of Summer.

The main event of the month is still to happen: the bottling of Terrus 2008! That is planned for tomorrow and will be a full day. I should also mention that the night of my arrival this time, Luna, our Rhodesian Ridgeback bitch, produced a delightful litter of 9 puppies, 7 of which survived and are thriving. Any good homes?

Our to do list is quite long. To keep calm Eva is knitting and I am smoking. And the airports are closed again. So I may have to stay on or may decide to drive to France and take the train from there. Whatever will be, will be, che sera sera!!!

Let the sun shine

2010-04-10T14:58:00.008+01:00

citrus from Fundo de Vila + photo by Karim Boye + print by Pamela Clarkson + cold & cough remedy (all in my kitchen in Lisbon)

new look

2010-04-10T14:24:00.003+01:00

We hope you like our new look. We think the colours are more appropriate to red wine, vines, land, etc. The great thing about blogs is how malleable they are, but we’re trying out this aesthetic for now, so let us know what you think. Keep an eye out also for new features. We’re working on them, but we do things leisurely (read lazily) here.

April (cont'd)

2010-04-10T09:53:00.002+01:00

April

2010-04-07T18:53:00.002+01:00

Spring

2010-04-06T20:57:00.004+01:00

April is indeed the cruellest month. I wonder what T.S. Eliot would have thought of the first lines of his most famous poem being presented as a Facebook status. That is where I last read the poet’s opening lines, and was hence reminded of The Wasteland, a book I read once through a few years ago, and didn’t really understand. Probably time I return to it with more care and attention. I think poetry is the art I find most difficult, even music, in spite of my ignorance on the subject, I seem to find easier to ‘get’.

Portugal is a land of poets, and this April the Douro valley seems fit to act as muse to one writing about the sad things in life. The chill, the drizzle that can’t quite make up its mind to turn into rain and so makes the use of an umbrella seem silly, the deep greens, the low-lying clouds (or is it high-lying mist?) following the curves of the river. Not being a poet I can’t turn the uncomfortable physical facts into lyrical metaphysicality. The cold, numb tips of my fingers remain just that, and only make it harder to type. The house has no heating, and the boiler isn’t working, but I am grateful for warm clothes, mugs of freshly brewed tea, and log fires – luxuries whatever the circumstances.

This visit to the north frames my first month living in Portugal. You hardly need to be a meteorologist to know that down south it’s warmer, but even a month ago when I was here it didn’t feel this cold, or perhaps it was the bursts of soft yellow from the mimosa trees warming things up. I arrived Thursday night, on the coach from Lisbon, and travelled with many others and their dispersive plans for the Easter weekend. The main reason for my trip was to see my dentist uncle who looks after my braces (it felt ridiculous to have braces at 30, but so many adults have them in Portugal, it must be the fashion). That duty done, I went to see my grandmother, who said I looked so-so, and then entertained me and herself with stories about family members represented in old photographs - a recent discovery of hers – which she keeps displayed around her room and stored in boxes and albums.

My pretensions to a certain degree of luxury insisted that I spend the night at Casa da Eva rather than at my grandmother’s, and in spite of my house’s shortcomings, it still feels more comfortable, although it might just be the comfort of solitude. One of my cousins and her friend gave me a lift here, while I bored them with my tales of woe about how hard it has been to find employment in Lisbon. Their response was surprisingly stiff-upper-lip, which was probably the metaphorical cold shower I needed to shut up and get on with it.

In the winery I found my cousin Francisco (Terrus enologist) and his brother To Zé sorting out their own wine Aneto. Decanting Aneto 2008 from wood barrels to metal ones to be bottled soon, washing the wood barrels out and filling them with Aneto 2009, the water and the wet enhancing the miserable weather outside.

[N.B. I am having some trouble with my images, but I shall upload some as soon as I solve the problem.]

On your marks, get set, sell!

2010-03-23T14:47:00.005Z

As winter turns into spring in Lisbon, the marketing of Terrus gets into full swing.

After having spent several years in the UK, I am now based in Lisbon and spend part of my time marketing and therefore trying to sell my mother’s wine (for a salary, I would like to add). My new role started in practice last Friday. Not quite knowing where to begin, I consulted the 2010 edition of João Paulo Martins’ Vinhos de Portugal (the Portuguese wine bible). Other than having a pretty good rating of Terrus, it also has a list of wine shops, in Portugal and abroad. I started off with the former, narrowing it down to Lisbon and surroundings, and started calling places, asking them whether I could go by and introduce the wine to them. And so that is what I have done these past two days. Targets have ranged from new, snazzy gourmet food & wine shops, to traditional Portuguese garrafeiras.

I take a bottle and information about the wine, give a little introduction and answer any questions my interlocutor might have. I thought some people would want to try the wine there and then, but that has not been the case. I have walked up and down Lisbon’s hilly streets, and have gotten to know the city better. The few longer conversations I have had with merchants have also been very interesting and instructive.

We shall see what fruits my labour bears.

Next I’ll most likely be getting in touch with restaurants and wine bars.

2010-03-17T11:00:00.005Z

Well, the photo is here and it was sent from the mobile phone! Miracle!

So I will try again. This one is of my good dear friend Leslie (I hope she does not mind), taken in London, on a cold wet dark evening, when we were having a glass of wine in a bar in Hampsthead and talking wine and families, mainly.

Ah! This time it did not work.

Yesterday I went to see the film The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Some wine drinking there but not a lot. I had read the book and knew what to expect and the violence was not overdone, not compared with the original, which the film follows closely. It was good, very good. In Swedish with subtitles, very civilized.

This sounds more like a diary than a blog. But what is a blog supposed to be? Having been to the conference in Lisbon last year I should know. Catavino will scold me and send me back to school!

Now let us try another photo, one intended for the site, of me and TERRUS.

Ah. did not work again. Time for lunch, and then for siesta.

2010 catching up with me

2010-03-17T10:15:00.004Z

Procrastination! Procrastination! One of my favorite words...

Now I can hardly remember what went by in the meantime. Several trips to the Douro, attendance at Wine Pleasures Barcelona to meet with possible buyers, the same to Algarvini, both useful for contacts and to breath the specific thick air of wine events. And this permanent nagging feeling that this is a language that I did not learn, not at home in my mother's lap, not in the village school I attended with a really blackboard, not through all my education. And yet I try.

Whom am I writing to? To myself of course, at this stage. To the screen. To Eva, who will check and most likely criticize! And to Catia, who noticed the void.

outono

2009-11-05T19:11:00.003Z

Chegou o outono que quase parece inverno. Frio, chuvoso, cinzento, maravilhoso. As videiras ainda têm muitas folhas e a cor apenas começa a mudar. Mas a cor da paisagem é térrea, castanha e verde de erva fresca e de solo cavado.

EWBC2009

2009-11-02T23:04:00.003Z

I am back home from 4 extraordinary days at the EUROPEAN WINE BLOGGERS CONFERENCE 2009. I feel almost like a blogger!!!
I do not have a single photo (big mistake) but my head is full of the faces present. Many thanks to the organizers, sponsors, participants.
sao

Life delayed / Life goes on

2009-10-04T20:10:00.003+01:00

A week spent in the north of Portugal, on my mother’s vineyard. Having gone with so many plans and ambitions, much time was wasted, distracted by impossible fantasies, and lost moments of staring into space.

One of my many cousins picked me up from the airport in Oporto and we drove to the depths of beauty and seeming nowhereness that is the Douro Valley. He’s a strapping young (gentle)man of 25, and off to do a PhD in biochemistry in the Netherlands, where his younger brother is also embarking on an exciting career as a dancer.

My 88-year-old bedridden grandmother commanded her usual authority from her abode, while we strained to make her comfortable and maintain an acceptable level of dignity, sitting her up, taking her her meals, remembering to give her her medicine. I was stoical about it, but also disturbed by the perceived constant presence of death, and the anxiety brought about by the feeling of life trickling away, and life without an apparent purpose. Back in London, in a whole other environment, I wondered if I was proud of what I had done, and concluded that no, it just had to be gotten on with.

One of my plans had been to re-do some of the walks that Michelle and I had mapped last year. But I only got around to doing one walk, down to the river from my grandmother’s farm, and up again, including part of the path that my mother used to cover daily when, as a child, she used to go to school nearby.

2009-10-04T19:44:00.012+01:00

ARTIGO PARA A REVISTA DA CEGTMAL

2009-08-02T19:12:00.002+01:00

Artigo Revista Confraria TERRUS Londres 31 de Julho 2009

No almoço do capítulo da Primavera, em Lisboa, foram apresentados e servidos vinhos do Douro, entre eles o tinto TERRUS, produzido por Maria da Assunção Foy, casada com o confrade Christopher Foy.

O Chris é confrade desde o tempo em que viviam em África e grande apreciador dos bons vinhos portugueses e não só. Talvez por isso, quando regressaram à Europa, o que coincidiu com a São herdar uma pequena quinta em Barrô, Resende, o terem-se lançado no projecto de replantar a vinha, ou 2 hectares dela, recuperar a casa e outras ruínas existentes e tentar produzir um vinho que respondesse às exigências do Chris e eventualmente do mercado.

Ao fim de 10 anos o resultado está à vista, a casa, adega, casinhas, armazém e loja de vinhos acabados ou quase e o TERRUS a dar os primeiros passos, algo cambaleantes, que o teor alcoólico é superior ao que se esperava desta zona de transição.

Barrô é a freguesia mais a Oeste da zona demarcada do Douro, margem Sul, Baixo Corgo portanto e o solo é granítico. Tem uma igreja românica bonita, dedicada a Nossa Senhora da Assunção, nome que foi dado ao pai da São (e da Teresa, casada com o Roger e de mais 12 irmãos e irmãs, contando só os legítimos, como se dizia), em promessa de que nascesse são e escorreito…e varão.

Para a São, recuperar a quinta e tentar torná-la produtiva era um dado evidente e pouco questionável. Além disso sempre tinha achado o lugar bonito, muito bonito até, dos mais bonitos das redondezas. E estava a chegar à idade, que não perdoa, em que o chamamento da terra e da terra da sua infância se começava a tornar ensurdecedor.
Para o Chris, que conhecia o suficiente da terra e das gentes para temer as consequências, restou a alternativa de trazer os Leões da Rodésia que o seguem para todo o lado e acompanhar os desenvolvimentos com pareceres, escolhas e uma aprendizagem longa e esforçada de paciência e generosidade. Porque o Douro é duro como a pedra que o sustenta e as suas gentes obstinadas e nem sempre razoáveis.
Assim acabaram fazendo o TERRUS, filho único para já, escurinho e cheio de carácter, como os produtores e o enólogo, Francisco, que também é da família. Fica ao vosso critério adoptá-lo e acompanhá-lo no crescimento que se auspicia lento e seguro, como a terra que o deu. À saúde.

2009-07-10T17:45:00.002+01:00

Hoje aconteceu pouca coisa mas escrevo meia duzia de frases para praticar. Com o teclado ingles vai sem acentos, o que irrita alguns, do que peco desculpa. Aconteceram algumas coisas, claro, principalmente na cabeca.

Lembro aquela proverbio chines que diz : o homem que tem 2 mulheres perdeu a cabeca, o que tem 2 casas perdeu a alma. Se se aplica tambem a mulheres eu tenho uma alma muito dividida. Por isso e para nao perder por completo a cabeca tento pensar apenas no aqui e no agora.

This was a project started by Eva and Michelle last year, when they were researching the walking paths in Fundo de Vila. I miss them. I miss Eva, my daughter, whom I see a little when I am in London. Michelle, who lives in Scotland, I see very rarely. And I miss Fundo de Vila and the Portugal that is attached to it and for that reason I have to think about it as little as possible, when I am not there. It is a divided life. Does the internet help to connect the different parts?

Nova Fase

2009-07-08T21:54:00.003+01:00

Passaram-se muitos meses entretanto e vamos entrar em nova fase. O site dos Douro4u vai para o ar muito em breve e vamos tentar ser um pouco mais assiduas e regulares. Mas por hoje e tudo. A Eva, que veio jantar e ajudar-me e eu estamos cansadas e ainda temos de fazer outra coisa. Boa noite portanto.

Primeira lição!

2009-02-08T18:46:00.002Z

A Eva deu-me hoje a primeira lição.

Stone

2008-10-14T22:06:00.000+01:00

Return

2008-10-14T21:58:00.000+01:00

Suenga

2008-10-13T19:17:00.000+01:00

Earth

2008-10-12T21:43:00.001+01:00

Making tracks

2008-10-11T21:47:00.000+01:00

Growth

2008-10-11T21:43:00.000+01:00

Dusk

2008-10-11T21:40:00.000+01:00

Jesus and Mary

2008-10-10T22:42:00.000+01:00

We have been walking around the Resende area, in the Douro valley, in the north of Portugal, tracking walks for São, a local landowner and winemaker. It is generally wonderful, as the photographs below attest to. However, there are occupational hazards. A very constant one is the threat of barking dogs. Aggressive, mangy, rabid-looking dogs. They just bark, and luckily never attack (so far).

On one occasion we were directed up a side road, which turned out to be a dead end. But before discovering this, we walked what seemed like the gauntlet of aggressive, rabid-looking dogs. On the way back from our dead end way, we noticed this white vision of a welcoming Christ with his bare, full-breasted friend. Mary Magdalene perhaps?

Another occupational hazard – in the realm of aesthetics, or is it comic relief? – is the sight of kitsch garden and gate ornaments. Mainly white gesso figures, which take the shape of the usual lions and gnomes, but also, more interestingly and unexpectedly, dragons with footballs. In case we have forgotten that Portugal is a football-crazy country.

One morning we woke up to this long narrow cloud at our eye level. It seemed to be a reflection of the river, winding its way between the hills.

This is the river beach at Porto Rei. It is about 5km from Fundo de Vila, the farm where we are staying, and from whence we leave on our walks. The walk to Porto Rei was gorgeous, and one of the best we have done. A path runs along the river, about 100m up. The colours were autumnal, and some of the vegetation was completely new to us and seemed to have been beamed down from another planet. We even met some slugs on the way, given that it had rained very heavily the previous day.

We stopped along the way to have an ‘al fresco’ packed lunch, and to watch the trains on the other side of the river, coming and going from Porto.

We eventually reached the river beach, and were met by these rather listless swan- and duck-shaped paddle boats. It seemed like we were the only visitors to the place, but the lady at the beach’s café said that the bathing season is July to September, when the beach gets truly crowded. However, the bathing seems to take place mainly in the swimming pool which has been built by the side of the river.

The coffee we had at the café (a bica, which is the equivalent of an espresso) packed the right punch to set us on the second leg of our walk.

High land

2008-10-10T22:36:00.000+01:00

Porto

2008-10-10T22:31:00.000+01:00

Getting to Porto takes approximately two hours on the train from Régua. On leaving the small Douro town, the train runs along the river, giving us the opportunity to stick our heads out of the train window trying to spot the farm where we are staying, and nice places for river swimming.

In Porto, still in the walking mood, we decide to walk from the centre of the city to Museu Serralves, about 3km northwest from Sao Bento station, the central one. Wanting to keep to the spirit of adventure, or for some other reason, we decide to not follow a map, until we get hideously lost walking around a university sports field and trying to get from one side of the motorway to the other.

We finally arrived, and rewarded ourselves with an ice cold beer, and two good exhibitions, one a sort of retrospective of Manoel de Oliveira’s oeuvre, and another of David Goldblatt’s work.

Along our walk we came across different examples of contemporary architecture, the strangest being this one below. We concluded it might be student accommodation. And that there might have been a show of some kind recently, although now there was absolutely no crowd to control.

And finally, the perfect symmetry of the garden of the Museu Serralves.

Régua

2008-10-10T22:27:00.001+01:00

2008-10-10T22:20:00.000+01:00

2008-10-10T22:10:00.000+01:00

CHEGAMOS

2008-10-03T22:37:00.000+01:00

This is the view from our front door. Casa da Eva is the name of the house.

The interior decoration is a mix ‘n’ match of things that São, the lady we are staying with, has picked up on her travels: Portugal, the Netherlands, Malawi, Kenya, United Kingdom, France, India, Mozambique.

The kitchen is lovely and large, which means that cooking and eating are made all the more enjoyable.

The beds are hard, but comfortable.