From West Coast to East Coast

During my recent trip to the USA to attend the Wine Bloggers Conference 2009 in Santa Rosa (see my last post about the conference here),  I had the chance to visit 2 of our American wine distributors, 1 in San Francisco, and the other in Newark, New Jersey.

Luis and Melanie Mayo, the owners of Vinos Unico,  are rightfully known in California as ‘THE‘ Iberian specialists. I dropped in on them early in the morning at their home and office in Cow Hollow, San Francisco, and had a pleasant chat with Luis while Melanie was busy getting their young children organized for the day. Luis, who comes from Cuba, and has a background in the fine restaurant world of New York (including the famous Windows of the World), moved to SF in 2005 to start Vinos Unico. (their website even has a blog! Check it out!) We are really proud  to be working with such a dynamic team, and excited that our wines are now more easily available in my own native California!

With the help of Luis’ inside information, I dined at 2 great restaurants serving superb ‘Novo-Iberian’ style cuisine during my short stay, Terzo in SF and La Salette in Sonoma, – where we celebrated a belated 80^th birthday for my Mom.  Amazing, how some of the best Portuguese cuisine is often found in restaurants halfway around the globe from Portugal! I have personally tried superb Portuguese food in Montreal, Macau, New York, New Jersey and California, and I don’t doubt there are many more out there in places I have yet to visit!

On my return to Portugal a dreaded 12 hours layover in Newark, turned out to be a lot of fun, as I was picked up at the airport by João Costa, the Newark rep for our New York distributor, TriVin. João took me to visit a few of our Bottle Shop customers in the Newark area who carry Cortes de Cima wines, such as Lisbon Liquors, Ferry Wines, Lou’s Corner, and LBV Cellars,  ending with a delicious, once again ‘Portuguese’ lunch at the Restaurant Sol-Mar on Ferry Street, the heart of the substantial Portuguese immigrant community in Newark, before sending me off to catch my TAP transatlantic flight to Lisbon (I can highly recommend their excellent economy service!)