Category: Portugal/Spain, Fall 2018

After returning from our long day of wine tasting, we hustled to the bakery about a quarter mile away for our Pastel de Nata baking class….where we showed up 20 minutes late.  The typical Portugese response to my text to let him know we were running late “no worries!”.

There were 4 others taking the class and Joao (uh oh, hope I don’t end up calling him J-wow by accident) was our teacher.  It’s a lot of fun to make these tasty custards, but without the professional equipment it can be a lot of work.  Joao made sure everybody was fully involved in each step of the process, and we got to eat our products when we were done.  No way I can eat more than one of these in a sitting though.  Joao told he he made them once when he was a kid and ended up eating 24 of them!  Holy moly!

A truly fun experience, and definitely the best Pastel de Nata’s we’ve had here in Portugal!

 

We did another Airbnb experience to go wine tasting in an area just north of Lisbon.  These Airbnb experiences have turned out to be excellent quality and value, but this one topped the cake!

We showed up at the meeting spot a little early, and when a van pulled up I approached the guy getting out and asked about the wine tasting.  He said yes, but that he was there to pick up Julia+1, not Chris and Kim.  Turns out we showed up a day early!  Our new friend Joao said “no problem!”, which we are finding to be quite typical of the Portugese.

After picking up Julia and her +1, we were off to wine country.  The first stop was at Adegamae, a beautiful new winery that was completed in 2011.  This place is fully state of the art, and rivals most wineries I’ve visited in the states, at least in technology.  The wines were “good” for the most part, with their lower end vinho branco (white wine) being the best of the 5 we tasted.  At 6 euros it’s a steal!  We walked away with two bottles.

Adegamae is owned by a company famous for their cod.  Cod didn’t fully pay for the new winery though.  The tour guide told me they received a large amount of money from the European Union, 60% of the total cost of the winery, since it brings jobs and prosperity to the region.

So after consulting with our partners on this tour, Julia and her +1 (Jules), we asked Joao (I could not pronounce his name and took to calling him J-wow….not sure how he felt about that) if we could hit another winery.  He said, well, we’ll have to have lunch at this great place nearby since it was nearly noon already.  Twist my arm J-wow!

The fall colors were amazing in the vineyards!  We stopped on the way to the resturant to take some pictures.

He took us to a restaurant where I think we were the only non-Portugese people in the place.  The food was awesome!  The Alvarinho was the best wine I’ve had in Portugal so far…I think it was 10 euros!

We then hit our 2nd winery, Quinta do Gradil.  Whereas the first winery we visited was completed in 2011, this winery is very old, dating to the 18th century.  All of the wines were very good, with the best being the 100% Tannat!  I walked away with one bottle….wish I could drag more along but we are trying to stay light.  This was a much more expensive bottle that the first two I bought…..at 8.60 euros!  I could put this wine up against $50+ wines back home!

This tour was supposed to be from 9 AM to noon.  We didn’t get back to Lisbon until 5:00!  What did J-wow want as extra payment for taking up his entire day?  15 euros each.  I love Portugal!  Thanks Joao!  I will learn to pronounce your name before we return to Lisbon!