I want to thank you for your generous wine donation to the Rose Charities “Rose Dinners” events we hosted this summer. They have been extremely successful; so far we’ve raised almost $3,000 and still hope to have one or two more dinners this year. Your donation was crucial to these fundraising efforts – we wouldn’t have raised nearly as much if we didn’t have your amazing wine. In addition to raising funds, these events have been a great way for us to get more Rose supporters – a friend invites a friend for wine and food – they learn about Rose and get involved! I’ve attached some photos of the dinners, so you can see how the events turned out. The Cortes de Cima wine was a big hit, especially the Chaminé white , perfect for outdoor summer dinners!

Thanks again for making this happen – we really appreciate your support, it helps us make so much happen!” - rosecharities.us

(Who we are:  Rose Charities primary focus is to help children and young adults who have suffered through poverty, disaster, exploitation or lack of opportunity.  We support projects in USA, Haiti, Cambodia,Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and Africa on a variety of poverty reducing issues.  We are non-political and have no religious affiliation.)

For the Mooncake Festival, everyone gives and eats Mooncakes, a sweet pastry made from lotus seed paste. As can be expected during the wine tastings, the topic often turned to ‘which wine to pair with Mooncakes?’ Our suggestion, as can be seen below, falls on Chaminé and Cortes de Cima.

For a Chinese wine drinker, using Western terms like ‘blackcurrant’ may be meaningless. In the language of wine, both tasting notes and food pairing ideas need to be linked to Asia’s owns flavors and cuisine. “The extraordinary wide array of flavors to be found in Asian cuisine provides a rich local vocabulary to describe wine’s range of flavors and textures.”  - Jeannie Cho Lee MW.

We asked a HongKong based wine educator the Independent Wine Centre to elaborate CHINESE TASTING NOTES and CHINESE FOOD MATCHING suggestions based on some of our wines. Here they are!-

Chaminé Tinto

CHINESE TASTING NOTES : Intense fragrance of dried prunes and preserved plums.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Mongolian barbecue, Cantonese style roast meat. Mooncake.

Chaminé Branco

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: This wine is more fragrant than Chinese pear. It is fresh and lively.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Steamed fresh seafood, Salt and pepper stir fried dish in Southern China

Cortes de Cima

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: Its long aftertaste is reminiscent of roast sesame and the bitter sweetness of ginseng.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH:Braised good quality abalone, Braised sea cucumber with shrimp roe. Mooncake

Syrah

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: Westerners will describe the aroma as mineral but in the food culture of Chinese, this 2007 Syrah reminds us of one of our beloved food – dried seafood, especially dried scallops.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Peking duck, river fish cooked in Northern China style

Touriga Nacional

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: It is not easy to describe this wine in a few words but it reminds us of the rich and colourful smells of a Shanghai candy store.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Stew beef brisket in clay pot, Preserved meat with rice, Fried glutinous rice

Incógnito

CHINESE TASTING NOTES: The fruit aroma is intense, with a strong fried pancake flavour, and a hint of sweet lotus taste.

CHINESE FOOD MATCH: Cantonese style clay pot dishes, cheese platter shared with a few friends.

]]> http://cortesdecima.com/events-eventos/chinese-language-of-wine/feed/ 0 http://cortesdecima.com/general/vinocamp-comes-to-portugal/ http://cortesdecima.com/general/vinocamp-comes-to-portugal/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:08:46 +0000 Carrie http://cortesdecima.com/?p=8063

• Q: What is VinoCamp ?
• A: An un-conference based on the ‘BarCamp’ format. Normally, BarCamps are all about technology. VinoCamp is about technology and wine, or a BarCamp devoted to wine.

• Q: What is a BarCamp ?
• A: “BarCamps are a type of conference or symposium. They are sort of an anarchic un-Conference, organized by all the attendees at the very last minute. I mean they’re not totally anarchic. There are rules of BarCamp. But the rules are written on a wiki that anybody can change” – Ryan O’Vineyards .    The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California, in 2005.

• Q: What was VinoCamp Portugal?
• A: VinoCamp Portugal was held May 27-29th 2011 with 63 participants from Portugal, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, UK and USA. With people coming from far and wide to attend, the program was extended to give the participants the chance to see more of Portugal and it’s wine industry . ViniCamp Portugal’s 2011 itinerary was as follows:

1. Day 1 (a fun day in the cork forest and to visit an Amorim cork factory)- organized by one of the sponsors Apcor.
2. Day 2 (Vinocamp! Barcamp like event where we discuss about wine and web) – held at the Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisboa.
3. Day 3 ( a day in the vines and in a winery) – the group was bussed down to Cortes de Cima for a winery visit,  live online wine tasting, and lunch in our winery tasting room overlooking the vineyards.

• Q: Where else are VinoCamps happening?
• A: Past VinoCamps have happened in Canada , Paris, Bourgogne and Languedoc. Future ones are soon to take place in Bordeaux and Geisenheim. Or plan one yourself! You can make it happen! All you need  is some IT geeks, winelovers (preferably one and the same!), a small venue and throw in something yummy like Chaminé with a pastel nata to get the conversation flowing!

In such times our local community has more needs than ever, and whenever we can, we try to respond to their appeals. Recently we helped in the acquisition of a van for transporting Vidigueira’s elderly and infirm for the new Rest Home  Santa Casa da Misericórdia, the opening of which was presided over by none the less than President Cavaco Silva last week.

We have also responded to an appeal to pay for furnishing a schoolroom for the toddlers at the brand new Santa Casa da Misericórdia nursery school in Vidigueira, also recently inaugurated earlier this month.

In the past our assistance has manifested itself in donation of not only an ambulance but also a second van for transport of elderly and handicapped, both for the local  Vidigueira Fire Department. Another very worthy cause of special interest was in helping CerciBeja, an institution for young and disfavored adults with deficiencies and incapacities, to build a polidesportive field.  Every year at Christmas, we never forget to make a donation to the Fundação Manuel Gerardo de Sousa e Castro, a home in Beja run by 2 nuns for orphaned or abandoned girls from ages 6 to 18.

To complicate this scenario, in 2002 Europe’s largest man-made lake, the 96m tall Alqueva dam, was built astride the Alqueva fault zone, a mere 25km radius from our winery. “Besides the surface rupture threat to the dam, the normal fault may work as a leakage passage for the reservoir water to the underlying Vidigueira fault, thus inducing seismic slip on this major regional structure.”- (copernicus.org)

Portugal has the dubious honor of having experienced one of the deadliest earthquakes in history. “The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that took place on 1 November 1755, followed by fires and a tsunami, which caused near-total destruction of Lisbon and adjoining areas, with an estimated magnitude of 8.5–9.0. The epicenter in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 km (120 mi) west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent. Estimates place the death toll in Lisbon alone between 10,000 and 100,000 people,[3] making it one of the deadliest earthquakes in history.” Wikipedia.

Last week, many of the Who’s Who of global wine journalism braved travelling through winter storms to meet in Oporto for an International Conference, Wine Tasting and a Top Ten wine competition, all to promote Touriga Nacional in particular, and Portuguese wines in general.

The news in the Portuguese press of budget cuts and austerity were in sharp contrast to the Gala reception laid on by ViniPortugal and the Portuguese wine trade for the visitors, including wining, dining and accommodation in Oporto’s best hotels, like the new Yeatman, with it’s commanding view from it’s perch on top of Vila Nova de Gaia over the world heritage town of Oporto and the Douro river. Crisis in Portugal and the wine industry? No sign of it last week in Oporto!

Jancis Robinson MW, Neal Martin, Charles Metcalfe, Robert McIntosh (UK), Tomoko Ebisawa, Ned Goodwin MW, (Japan), Tommy Lam and Simon Tam (China) Doug Frost MW, Mary Mulligan MW, Paul White, Elin McCoy, Joe Roberts and Luis Alberto (USA), Zoltan Szabo, Tom Firth and Chris Waters (Canada), Kristine Baeder, Finkus Bripp and Stephan Reinhardt (Germany), Guilherme Rodrigues (Brazil), Tom Marthinsen (Norway), Ryan Opaz (Spain), Mads Jordansen (Denmark), Maciej Gontarz (Poland), Ilkka Siren (Finland)…were just a few of the wine celebrities who travelled from far and wide to participate in this multi-day event, just squeezed into the calendar prior to the Christmas and New Year’s celebratory season.

Portuguese winemakers were urged to work together to raise awareness of their country and their products, and to promote our wealth of indigenous varieties, including Touriga Nacional. Metcalfe said: “In this noisy world Portugal’s quiet message is overwhelmed by most of the others. One of the ways to overcome this is for all of Portugal’s sectors to work together – wine, gastronomy, sport, tourism and so on.”