Various from Portugal & France

Portugal

Adegga Wine Market on Saturday 1st December 2018 – a date for your diary

This year the winter Adegga Wine Market has a new venue at Armazém 16, Marvila, Lisboa with 70 Produtores Adegga, 500 Vinhos, 5 Chefs, 1 Sala Premium (Premium Room). Scenes from the 2015 Wine Market in Lisbon

There will be a special 'Rising Stars' section with Álvaro Martinho (Douro), Arribas Wine Company (Trás-os-Montes), Herdade da Anta da Cima (Alentejo), Portugal Boutique Winery (Douro), Rosa da Mata (Dão), Titan of Douro (Douro) already confirmed.

It will be interesting to see how the empty space above will be transformed for the Wine Market. If you happen to be in Lisbon on Saturday 1st December then a few hours spent at the Wine Market is highly recommended – a brilliant opportunity to meet some of Portugal's most interesting wine producers, taste their wines and then buy at a discounted price.

••

Lisbon is booming – a week last Sunday morning we travelled back into Lisbon where we had again had a great meal at Terroso and the streets were mobbed at 1.15 am with traffic jams – true it was the weekend before the Web Summit ...... but even so. Sadly Terroso is now closed on Sundays and Mondays, so long Sunday lunches are now out, so will just have to have long Saturday lunches or even long Tuesday lunches instead.

It is more than a full-time job trying to keep up with all the new bars and restaurant openings in Central Lisbon. During our brief Lisbon visit we did try one new restaurant – Picamiolos, where the influence is very much from the Alentejo. We were very impressed.

There were some very creative dishes like the above very crispy rabbit chops – so crispy that you eat the bone and all.

Acorda is very much a traditional Portuguese recipe – a recipe based on bread and including fish or shellfish often prawns or monkfish. Acorda is a little like a bread porridge. Although well done acorda can be very good, here at Picamiolos the approach was decidedly different. Their acorda of guinea fowl was more akin to a bread and butter pudding without the sweetness – the bread lightly toasted. With this we drank the fascinating and lightly spicy 2013 Mayor from José da Sousa, which is vinified in ceramic amphora that has a very long tradition in the Alentejo dating back to Roman times.

I do hope that Lisbon will ride the boom and continue to offer quality food and drink at a reasonable price wherever you go – one of the big reasons for the the city's current popularity. If it doesn't then there is always a danger that boom can turn rapidly to bust.

France

Make Mine a Pouilly-Fumé!

On Friday night we opened the stunning 2014 Barre à Mine, Blanc Fumé de Pouilly from Michel Redde – a combination of lovely rich texture citric fruits edging towards more exotic fruits matching by great clean mineral length. Drinking brilliantly now but clearly capable of aging much longer.

Barre à Mine comes from a special relatively recently created vineyard planted in very flinty ground just off the D4 close to La Roche in the northern end of the Pouilly-Fumé appellation. The Reddes cleared some huge boulders (see below) from ground around an old quarry – hence the name.

 

Vines struggling through pure flint....

Restaurante Terroso – Pedro & Vitalina set up in Cascais

Pedro Jorge @ the entrance to 

Restaurante Terroso, Cascais

(above and below) 

 Vitalina rattling the pots and pans 

(above and below)

 

Sign for Terroso in small Rua do Poço Novo, Cascais

For many years Pedro Jorge ran the Garrafeira Alfaia in the Bairro Alto making it one of Lisbon's best wine bars, while his wife Vitalina, cooked deliciously in the associated restaurant across the street. Unfortunately about a year ago there was a family bust-up, Pedro and Vitalina left. 

The good news is that they have set up on their own in the seaside resort of Cascais with Restaurant Terroso. It is great to see Pedro and Vitalina so happy and proud of their new venture, which opened about three months ago. Pedro stresses that they still have the same philosophy that made Alfaia so successful. People are welcome whether they just want a glass of wine and some cheese or ham or they want a full meal. However, given how good Vitalina's cooking is it is a seriously missed opportunity not to try her food!

Coast towards Lisbon

Looking towards Cascais

Arriving in Lisbon last Wednesday we wasted no time in heading out to try out Terroso. Catching the train from Cais do Sodre we got off a Monte Estoril and walked the rest of the way along the seafront to Cascais.

Terroso is very close to Casais' central seafront near to the Hotel Baia but just off the main drag. You can either eat outside or in – we chose in as there was a coolness in the air. Terroso has been very well done out with clean lines and using the Terroso motif very effectively.

 Here come the reds.....  

 

 Tiled tables from the 1920s 

that the previous restaurant had covered up

Roots showing the local products 

– including wine, honey, olives

 First things first – a bottle of crisply refreshing

2016 Arinto Quinta do Síbio from the Douro

 We selected a couple of petiscos for our starters.

We had to have the pata negra, which is still delicious 

Also the liver and olives  

Duck and wild mushroom pastry parcel

– one of Vitalina's signature dishes

We were the first to try this as Terroso's 

electricity supply has just be upgraded 

– previously they could run the oven at a sufficient heat 

 

 The compelling 2014 Casa de Mouraz, Dão

One of the increasingly rare bottles for this producer

badly affected by the forest fires

 

 

 Grilled sea bass – we shared 

a perfectly grilled dish

Vitalina, Pedro and their enthusiastic waiter

Terroso is open from Tuesday to Sunday from noon to 11pm.  

How much is a season train ticket from Lisbon to Cascais......? We are already planning to go back.