PART 2 of the interview with Charles Metcalfe, who can be called the guru on Portuguese wines: on the excellent wine and food in Portugal today.
Is Portugal perhaps a New World wine country (with all the new technology and new knowledge)? Charles says perhaps, but perhaps not. It is maybe more a question of rediscovery of the old world. Portugal has also benefited enormously benefited from infrastructure investments financed by the European community.
What about the prospects for the Portuguese to market and sell their wines with these local and unknown grape varieties on the international market? Are Portuguese grape names the future? Perhaps for arinto, touriga nacional, and maybe on or two others. Otherwise it is probably more important to emphasise the brand. But it can be very small brands e.g. Quinta do Crasto or Quinta de la Rosa to take two examples from the Douro Valley. Brands and branding is probably the way to go rather than the grape varieties, says Charles.
We must also mention the book The Wine and Food Lovers Guide to Portugal: A monumental book on Portugal, its food, the wineries and places to visits, hotels to stay in etc. A travel guide for people who love eating and drinking. By Charles Metcalfe and Kathryn McWhirter of course.
This interview was made at the European Wine Bloggers Conference #EWBC 2009 in Lisbon: https://winebloggersconference.org/europe/
On the book: https://www.innhousepublishing.com/
Charles blog, The wine singer: https://thewinesinger.blog.co.uk/
More on Charles: https://www.wineeducators.com/charles_metcalfe.html
Music: Kaleidoscope, Sol e dad, https://www.jamendo.com
By BKWine, https://www.bkwine.com. Interviewer: Per Karlsson, BKWine
