Hey Greg - we’re virtually vizinhos! We’re between São Teotónio and Boa Vista on the inland side of the 120. I tried to message you on WhatsApp but it didn’t recognise you. I’ll try to message directly - it would be great to meet up.
Hello Alastair, Clive and I are following your blog with great interest. We lived on the West Coast for five years and have now retreated east , more than we reckoned with, on the East side in VRSA . It’s hard for us to fathom that parts of our beloved Vincentine coast are burning. I’ve been thinking this was the only cool place left in all of Portugal! Good luck and do let us know when you’re taking in guests - we would like to be among the first! Boa sorte!
Hey Betsy - thanks for getting in touch...sorry it's taken me so long to reply. Thanks so much for following the blog - we're facing some challenges but having a lot of fun in the process! Where did you live on this coast? We still think it's the best (but I haven't been to VRSA, so it's hard to know for sure!) Al
Boa tarde. I was wondering what happened to your blog. We have a small flower farm in João Roupeiro in Odeceixe and got a little spooked by the fire as it got to about 1.5 km from us. We were shocked a couple of days later when we drove by Odeceixe and saw how the fire had come up to the city itself, and even more amazed last week when we drove up to Beja and saw all the burn in and around southern Odemira. Thanks for the update on Vicentino winery, we could see how close the fire came to their fields on the west side of N120. Keep up the good writing, we are thinking about putting in a few vines as we have about 2 ha that we are deciding what to do with.
Bom dia Alastair. Thanks for the invite, it sounds like fun. I’ll be there. Send me a pin of your location, if appears to be about 17 km from me. Sorry about the missed call. I’ve been in the U.S. until Tuesday morning and wasn’t using my PT sim.
Hey Greg - I've had so many distractions recently, but have a load of great material I need to write up and knock into shape...and the podcast to launch! How far advanced is your research on what to plant on your land? We're thinking field blend, but have a load of reading and researching to do. It was quite a fire huh? And 1.5km is close. It'd be good to drop by and meet you guys.
Hi Alastair. You can drop by anytime. We live in Joao Roupeiro between the two rural turismos Monte Joao Roupeiro and Casa Vicentina. Just reply here or by whatsapp, +351 927 064 594. Where is your place? I seem to remember that last year, when you wrote your blog about the fires, I looked it up on Google maps and it was in the upper Alentejo. As far as what to plant on our land, it is still kind of in the early planning stages. We have 3.9 ha, but up until 22/9/23 we have had access to only 1/2 of it. As part of the deal when we bought it in Sept 2019 we agreed to allow the sellers, our neighbors across the street, to use 1/2 for four years. We are 3 weeks away from the end that deal, thank God. As everywhere a major consideration is water. We are within the AB Mira irrigation district, but only partially so we don't get the full allocation for our acreage. The land has/had protea flower plants and ornamental eucalyptusb along with a huge greenhouse. We have planted about .75 ha with lavender and will probably plant about another ha. For the rest we are considering things like grapes, olive trees, or pine nut pines. Anything that does't need a lot of water.
Hey Greg - I hope all's well. We have a wine event this weekend at our place and I tried to message you on your phone...but it didn't go through. I'll try calling, but is there another number or email address I can contact you on please?
In case you get this...here's the info!...
It’s all about Alicante Bouschet...the French grape that Portugal has made its own. We’re bringing two of the world’s top Alicante Bouschet winemakers to introduce their wines and help us launch the latest podcast episode of Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure.
Iain Reynolds-Richardson of Mouchão will be telling the story of how one of his ancestors first introduced the red-juiced grape to Alentejo from the south of France in the 1800s...and why. Thirty years ago there were only 100ha of the grapes left in the Alentejo, but now there are 8,000 hectares “largely due to Mouchão” according to wine critic Jancis Robinson.
French winemaker Baptiste Carrière Pradal of Domaine de la Massole will be visiting Portugal to explain how a grape created by Henri Bouschet in the mid-1800s to give colour to poor French wines gave Alicante Bouschet a bad reputation in France...but how he’s now producing an amazing single varietal old vine Alicante Bouschet in the Languedoc.
It will be an afternoon of wine tasting with a view, light bites, storytelling and learning about this intriguing grape by two of its masters and greatest champions...and to see whether Portugal, or France, does Alicante Bouschet the best!
Hey Greg - we’re virtually vizinhos! We’re between São Teotónio and Boa Vista on the inland side of the 120. I tried to message you on WhatsApp but it didn’t recognise you. I’ll try to message directly - it would be great to meet up.
Hello Alastair, Clive and I are following your blog with great interest. We lived on the West Coast for five years and have now retreated east , more than we reckoned with, on the East side in VRSA . It’s hard for us to fathom that parts of our beloved Vincentine coast are burning. I’ve been thinking this was the only cool place left in all of Portugal! Good luck and do let us know when you’re taking in guests - we would like to be among the first! Boa sorte!
Hey Betsy - thanks for getting in touch...sorry it's taken me so long to reply. Thanks so much for following the blog - we're facing some challenges but having a lot of fun in the process! Where did you live on this coast? We still think it's the best (but I haven't been to VRSA, so it's hard to know for sure!) Al
The reason quite simply is ocean swimming. There’s a Mediterranean microclimate here and the water is ever so much warmer than Lagos.
Boa tarde. I was wondering what happened to your blog. We have a small flower farm in João Roupeiro in Odeceixe and got a little spooked by the fire as it got to about 1.5 km from us. We were shocked a couple of days later when we drove by Odeceixe and saw how the fire had come up to the city itself, and even more amazed last week when we drove up to Beja and saw all the burn in and around southern Odemira. Thanks for the update on Vicentino winery, we could see how close the fire came to their fields on the west side of N120. Keep up the good writing, we are thinking about putting in a few vines as we have about 2 ha that we are deciding what to do with.
Bom dia Alastair. Thanks for the invite, it sounds like fun. I’ll be there. Send me a pin of your location, if appears to be about 17 km from me. Sorry about the missed call. I’ve been in the U.S. until Tuesday morning and wasn’t using my PT sim.
Hey Greg - I've had so many distractions recently, but have a load of great material I need to write up and knock into shape...and the podcast to launch! How far advanced is your research on what to plant on your land? We're thinking field blend, but have a load of reading and researching to do. It was quite a fire huh? And 1.5km is close. It'd be good to drop by and meet you guys.
Hi Alastair. You can drop by anytime. We live in Joao Roupeiro between the two rural turismos Monte Joao Roupeiro and Casa Vicentina. Just reply here or by whatsapp, +351 927 064 594. Where is your place? I seem to remember that last year, when you wrote your blog about the fires, I looked it up on Google maps and it was in the upper Alentejo. As far as what to plant on our land, it is still kind of in the early planning stages. We have 3.9 ha, but up until 22/9/23 we have had access to only 1/2 of it. As part of the deal when we bought it in Sept 2019 we agreed to allow the sellers, our neighbors across the street, to use 1/2 for four years. We are 3 weeks away from the end that deal, thank God. As everywhere a major consideration is water. We are within the AB Mira irrigation district, but only partially so we don't get the full allocation for our acreage. The land has/had protea flower plants and ornamental eucalyptusb along with a huge greenhouse. We have planted about .75 ha with lavender and will probably plant about another ha. For the rest we are considering things like grapes, olive trees, or pine nut pines. Anything that does't need a lot of water.
Hey Greg - I hope all's well. We have a wine event this weekend at our place and I tried to message you on your phone...but it didn't go through. I'll try calling, but is there another number or email address I can contact you on please?
In case you get this...here's the info!...
It’s all about Alicante Bouschet...the French grape that Portugal has made its own. We’re bringing two of the world’s top Alicante Bouschet winemakers to introduce their wines and help us launch the latest podcast episode of Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure.
Iain Reynolds-Richardson of Mouchão will be telling the story of how one of his ancestors first introduced the red-juiced grape to Alentejo from the south of France in the 1800s...and why. Thirty years ago there were only 100ha of the grapes left in the Alentejo, but now there are 8,000 hectares “largely due to Mouchão” according to wine critic Jancis Robinson.
French winemaker Baptiste Carrière Pradal of Domaine de la Massole will be visiting Portugal to explain how a grape created by Henri Bouschet in the mid-1800s to give colour to poor French wines gave Alicante Bouschet a bad reputation in France...but how he’s now producing an amazing single varietal old vine Alicante Bouschet in the Languedoc.
It will be an afternoon of wine tasting with a view, light bites, storytelling and learning about this intriguing grape by two of its masters and greatest champions...and to see whether Portugal, or France, does Alicante Bouschet the best!
When: 1 March at 4pm – 6pm
Where: Vale das Estrelas
Cost: €25pp