Web 2.0 Wine journalists in Beja
An impressive array of foreign journalists descended upon Cortes de Cima and Beja this past weekend, in connection with a big wine exhibition, VINIPAX, a name derived from Beja’s Roman ‘Pax Julia’ , appropriate as the Romans were once prolific winegrowers in this area!
The event was orchestrated by a known Portuguese wine journalist Aníbal Coutinho, who succeeded in gathering together 80 wine producers from the whole of southern Portugal (Alentejo, Algarve, Ribatejo and Terras do Sado). We certainly hope that if the intention of the organizers is to turn the affair into an annual happening, that they also succeed in attracting more trade and consumer visitors, as it seemed most of the time that the wine producers outnumbered the visitors!
The foreign journalists had a very full schedule visiting many of the wineries in the Beja area, and luckily Cortes de Cima was included in their itinerary, so we had the chance to offer them a vineyard tour, wine tasting and lunch, on a lovely sunny late autumn afternoon.
The group included many Web 2.0 activists and bloggers, evidence that wine journalism is more and more succumbing to the global trend of the new Web. Daenna Van Mulligen from Vancouver, Freddie Grimwood from Quebec, Rebecca Leung from Hong Kong, Suzanne Mustacich and Philippe Simon from Bordeaux, Jia Peng and Jacques Driol from Shanghai and France, Ellen Wallace from Geneva, Hervé Lalau from Belgium, Jacqueline Jensen from Denmark, Jorge Lucki from Brazil, and a single Portuguese delegate – André Ribeirinho.
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Adegga
Sunday October 26th, 2008
Wish we had had time to make it over, sounds like fun!
Monday October 27th, 2008
We had a lovely visit, learned a great deal about Portuguese wine but also the enthusiasm and energy that is going into developing the south of the country – new vines planted, new attitudes about wine. I agree that Vinipax will need to publicize the fair better to get a larger public in there: it was a great opportunity to sample dozens and dozens of wines, but not enough people had heard about it, I think.
Monday October 27th, 2008
I discussed this problem with other producers, and one suggestion was to hold the wine fair at the same time as Beja’s annual agriculture fair, OviBeja, which is very popular, and attracts visitors from all parts of Portugal.
It reminds me of the dilemma over international airport of Beja, which is currently under construction, and the object of constant debate as to it’s viability.
Monday October 27th, 2008
We have just created a Flickr Group called VINIPAX 2008 where you will be able to add your photos of the event. If you have a flickr account just add our group if you don’t – why not subscribe? it’s free.
Follow our link http://www.flickr.com/groups/898419@N20/