I’m in Portugal right now, visiting Nuno to work on a top-secret commercial project for a couple of days. I think I’ve chosen the right time to come here. While the weather is mostly vile back home in the Netherlands (rain, grey, overall depressing), the sun still shines brightly here in Regua, in the Douro valley. Can’t say that this way of working is a pain. While we’re really productive, having good conversations, complement each other nicely (strategic bits: me, graphics and beauty department: Nuno), we also find some time to dive into Portugese culture.
Tuesday, we’ve taken the afternoon off to drive into the Douro valley, the region where all Port wine comes from. The cropping season is just beginning here, and the vineyards are starting to change their color from green to shades of yellow, brown and red. With the mountains here, that makes for beautiful scenery. Also the smell of fermentation is slowly coming up (that same smell you might know from your last visit of a wine cellar, if you ever did that). It’s funny and amazing at the same time to read the names of the wine houses, most are actually known to me, and then you see their vineyards…
Some of you, my dear readers, might know that I’m a big fan of Port wine, so I’m also taking this opportunity to understand a bit better the circumstances of making this great product, the weather situation, geographical circumstances, but also food that goes along with traditional Portugese wine culture. Tomorrow, I’ll be going back home, and next week, Kim has claimed a couple of days to visit Leeuwarden and Groningen in the South of the Netherlands, and to spend a bit of quality time — we didn’t have much time for that lately.