From Barca d'Alva to Almendra

In August, under almost 40ºC, we did a wonderful car drive between the slopes of the Douro Superior, with the river running down, surrounded by olive trees, vineyards and dust, António and Emil in the front of the car, me and the little Jorge behind. Most of it on a dusty road not proper for our car. It was great!!

Portugal Tour - Douro Superior

August was great because we had the oportunity of travel a lot on the Douro Valley, and for me Douro Superior it's the most beautiful place in Portugal to be. The triplet vineyards - olive trees - almond trees, and some other little bushes and flowers kep me in love for this land. And it's the better place to do organic and biodynamic wines - the sunny sky is omnipresent.

Portugal Tour - another day in the Dão

One of our vineyards in the Dão, with a lot of olive trees.

Resting in Paços dos Cunhas de Santar, in the nice village of Santar. António inside a "lagareta", the primitive "lagar" (open tank in granite used to do the fermentation of the wines in the Dão and in the Douro valley).

Portugal Tour - Dão

The new vineyard of Pego de Cima, planted with Touriga-Nacional.

View from the big rock in the new vineyard of Pego, down it's the river Dinha, one of the affluents of the Dão.

António talking about biodynamic practices in Vale da Sobreira (Mouraz). Ways to control deseases, the use of plants theas, the relation with the sky, the moon, etc.

António Ribeiro, Emil Hauser, Yoko and Tetsu Makino (whom have an organic restaurant in Osaka with CASA de MOURAZ wines) in Vale da Sobreira (Mouraz).

Portugal Tour - Vinho Verde

The cows (cachenas's family) of Quinta de Segade in Penafiel.

One of the houses of Quinta de Segade.

Pedro (Quinta de Segade) and Emil Hauser.

The vineyard (view from a chestnut tree).

Emil taking pictures of António (father and son) and the cows.

Fernando Paiva (Quinta da Bouça-Chã, near Lixa)explaining the dificulties of doing a biodynamic farming in the Verdes

Region. With an atlantic climate with strong humidity and rain, it's almost impossible to work with 3Kg of copper by hectare (Demeter's maximum doses of copper per year and ha). Fernando Paiva is one of the fews wine producers with Demeter certification in Portugal.

Ducks in the vineyard of Fernando Paiva (Lixa, Amarante).

Old typical vineyards in the Verdes Region, north of Portugal (near Amarante).

It's like holiday time!

António Ribeiro, Steven Van de Woestyne and Nathalie (Wijnhuis Tinto).

Despite the work we have to do, this 2 days we received a client from Belgium, Wijnhuis Tinto (http://www.wijnhuistinto.be/) and we spent a lovely time tasting wines and visiting the vineyards from the Dão and the Douro. We finishid the "holiday time" with a nice lunch in the DOC restaurant, from the chef Rui Paula, over the Douro river.

The ancient vine

It's a tree? A green cottage ? A refuge? It's a vine, only one, with more than 100 years old. We can make a nap under the leaves, we can seat and rest, protect us from the sun or the rain. Despite the age, it produce good grapes. It's a beatifull old lady vine!!