Awards and citations:


1997: Le Prix du Champagne Lanson Noble Cuvée Award for investigations into Champagne for the Millennium investment scams

2001: Le Prix Champagne Lanson Ivory Award for investdrinks.org

2011: Vindic d'Or MMXI – 'Meilleur blog anti-1855'

2011: Robert M. Parker, Jnr: ‘This blogger...’:

2012: Born Digital Wine Awards: No Pay No Jay – best investigative wine story

2012: International Wine Challenge – Personality of the Year Award




Monday 25 February 2013

Porto Brandão and lunch@Maré Viva


Saluti! – Carole and Claire toast@Maré Viva, Porto Brandão 

One of our favourite places in the Lisbon area to have Sunday lunch is across on the south side of the Tagus at Porto Brandão at the Maré Viva restaurant. Porto Brandão is a short ferry ride across the Tagus from Bélem. 

Yesterday we had an excellent lunch there with a table by the window that looks out across the Tagus to Bélem and the exquisite Torre de Bélem. We started with clams with garlic and coriander and prawns in garlic. Main course was arroz with shellfish and monkfish. As so often we drank the Vinho Verde (a blend of Alvarinho and Trajadura) from Muralhas de Monção – this time the 2011 vintage. Although not as fine as a good pure Alvarinho, the Muralhas de Monção works very well with this sort of fish lunch.      

 
2011 Muralhas de Monção

After lunch there was time to wander slowly around the small village of Porto Brandão and then sit by the waters' edge while waiting for the ferry back to Bélem.

Across the Tagus to the Torre de Bélem partially obscured by a swooping gull 

  
Church bell

 
A day for washing clothes...
 

 
 Two fishermen – one baiting a hook


View to the 25th April Bridge across the Tagus and Lisbon beyond
 Pontoon chain (above and below) 


4 comments:

Luc Charlier said...

When I first visited the region, possibly back in ’92 or ’93, a kg of alvarinho would be paid a 50% premium above other varieties, in escudos at that time. It reached .... over 10 vol% potential alcohol. Waw. And red vinho verde was much more abundant than white. A queue of tractors of over 4 hours was waiting outside the plant at the Adega of Monção, at picking time, their trailers full of grapes and .... wasps and bees by the ton! Still some very decent crisp white wine was already made. Now, Jim, I share your enthusiasm for good Vinho Verde. Problem is, it is seldom seen abroad (maybe in UK, I don’t know) as the main market there still lies with the restaurants of the Portuguese diaspora ... hardly the best show-room. By the way, ever tried cryo-extracted “Quartos de Resteva” sweet wine? They now have a plot of early ripening “vinhas largas” which work miracles ....

Jim's Loire said...

Luc. Despite your occasional idiocracies I'm prepared to make considerable allowances given your admiration for good Vinho Verdes.

Luc Charlier said...

Idiocracy, say you ?
Well, in Flemish, the term is “eigenwijs”, litterally “own wise”, wise in my own way.
I couldn’t agree more.
No, seriously: your blog takes a very long time to down-load, probably because my PC is an old one with only 504 Mb of RAM and the firewall is demanding more and more space as time goes by. As a result, you’ll find me less present – a blessing for your readers – not because I lose interest but due to the time (we’re talking a good 5 or 6 minutes, repeated at each change of page) it consumes. Sorry about that. Improvement in my equipment is not the first monetary priority right now.

Jim's Loire said...

Thanks Luc. Sorry to learn that you are struggling with a a charcoal fired computer.