WINE & LIFESTYLE REPORT
Why
Why does food play such an important role in my life?
Why do I love to travel?
Why I'm I passionate about wine?
Why did I start this website?
Well I'll start by answering the last question, to talk freely about all of the above! This project is supposed to be a record about my chosen lifestyle, which revolves around food, wine and travelling, beside my "day time job", cause you've got have some money to indulge in the accounted pleasures!
Everything above is such a source of enjoyment, I just need to share.
My love for food comes from early age. My family has strong culinary traditions and our meals were always regarded as crucial moments of pleasure, sociability and indulgence. My time at the table was always a happy event with at least a party of 10 on either side of my family.
Both families have African influences from a long period of living in Angola, and this was very noticeable at the table. On my mother side women dominated the kitchen, producing rich traditional food with intense flavours and that nurturing motherly characteristic. Spice was always at hand and chillies were always integrated.
On my father side my grandfather was the kitchen guru, for me the definition of a gourmet. Every weekend different dishes came into play, always produced with a very high spirit and frequently it involved singing. Although my palate was still a bit dull I remember his cooking as divine. Sometimes, very few, I found myself alone with him and this were unforgettable moments. I sat at the table and he would serve me as if I was in a fancy restaurant, and I treasure this moments as pure bliss.
So food links me to my elders, and it is always a mean to remind me of those who are no longer among us. I still carry a secret desire to keep my grandfather legacy, but I'm clearly losing ground.
Travelling was always an addiction. Since a child I've loved that feeling of abandonment, kind of leaving reality behind in search of fantasy and adventure. Always associated this with pure freedom.
At 6 I had my first aeroplane ride to Funchal, and from that time on I can't remember a year passing without flying away. My mother and her husband wanted to show us kids all main European cities, which clearly opened my horizons. Nowadays I'm constantly thinking about the next destination, my next great escape! I'm addicted to finding some place new.
Wine was the latest and slowest of these passions, but has proven to be the strongest. I can't link my wine interest to a single event, it was something gradual that appeared naturally with adult age. It is still a work in progress, the more I know about the subject the more I want to learn.
I can't link this to a specific wine either, but I can single out two events that really were decisive in my dedication to wine discovery.
First I went to Rio de Janeiro to meet a side of my family that settled there for a very long time. One of my cousins was absolutely mad about wine, and kept asking about dozens of Portuguese wines that he had tasted and loved and of which I knew little or nothing about. This could not be!
Short after this came my first trip to Douro valley and it's wine estates. The incredible scenery and the amazing human will power that set that panorama in order to plant vineyards caught me off guard and turned me into the full wine freak I proudly became. The trip back was made with a full wine trunk, already with some gems from the likes of Niepoort, Vallado, Pintas, Dow's....
From there on it was always uphill...or downhill, depending on the perspective.
Why do I love to travel?
Why I'm I passionate about wine?
Why did I start this website?
Well I'll start by answering the last question, to talk freely about all of the above! This project is supposed to be a record about my chosen lifestyle, which revolves around food, wine and travelling, beside my "day time job", cause you've got have some money to indulge in the accounted pleasures!
Everything above is such a source of enjoyment, I just need to share.
My love for food comes from early age. My family has strong culinary traditions and our meals were always regarded as crucial moments of pleasure, sociability and indulgence. My time at the table was always a happy event with at least a party of 10 on either side of my family.
Both families have African influences from a long period of living in Angola, and this was very noticeable at the table. On my mother side women dominated the kitchen, producing rich traditional food with intense flavours and that nurturing motherly characteristic. Spice was always at hand and chillies were always integrated.
On my father side my grandfather was the kitchen guru, for me the definition of a gourmet. Every weekend different dishes came into play, always produced with a very high spirit and frequently it involved singing. Although my palate was still a bit dull I remember his cooking as divine. Sometimes, very few, I found myself alone with him and this were unforgettable moments. I sat at the table and he would serve me as if I was in a fancy restaurant, and I treasure this moments as pure bliss.
So food links me to my elders, and it is always a mean to remind me of those who are no longer among us. I still carry a secret desire to keep my grandfather legacy, but I'm clearly losing ground.
Travelling was always an addiction. Since a child I've loved that feeling of abandonment, kind of leaving reality behind in search of fantasy and adventure. Always associated this with pure freedom.
At 6 I had my first aeroplane ride to Funchal, and from that time on I can't remember a year passing without flying away. My mother and her husband wanted to show us kids all main European cities, which clearly opened my horizons. Nowadays I'm constantly thinking about the next destination, my next great escape! I'm addicted to finding some place new.
Wine was the latest and slowest of these passions, but has proven to be the strongest. I can't link my wine interest to a single event, it was something gradual that appeared naturally with adult age. It is still a work in progress, the more I know about the subject the more I want to learn.
I can't link this to a specific wine either, but I can single out two events that really were decisive in my dedication to wine discovery.
First I went to Rio de Janeiro to meet a side of my family that settled there for a very long time. One of my cousins was absolutely mad about wine, and kept asking about dozens of Portuguese wines that he had tasted and loved and of which I knew little or nothing about. This could not be!
Short after this came my first trip to Douro valley and it's wine estates. The incredible scenery and the amazing human will power that set that panorama in order to plant vineyards caught me off guard and turned me into the full wine freak I proudly became. The trip back was made with a full wine trunk, already with some gems from the likes of Niepoort, Vallado, Pintas, Dow's....
From there on it was always uphill...or downhill, depending on the perspective.
