Long story, made even longer by my writing style, so maybe pour yourself a glass of something. . .
In my recent initial explorations of Portuguese wine at home, I was particularly impressed with the Xisto Illimitado Branco wine of Luis Seabra. I was also intrigued by his journey in winemaking and his philosophy from what I had read online. I knew that he made wines from a number of different regions, but was not really sure if he had a “main” location. I saw online that he had an address of some type in Porto, and also in the Douro, and since we would be visiting both as part of our first trip to Portugal, I thought we might be able to visit and taste. I dropped an email to Luis Seabra Vinhos expressing my interest and asking about possibilities for a visit. My email was answered by the man himself, and after couple of back and forth exchanges, it was clear that
- he was a busy guy
- he was a nice guy, putting a lot of effort into trying to accommodate me.
Things were not working out, and I sent him what I thought was a final email thanking him and asking him not to put any more time into it as I was just an “ordinary joe” who liked his wine and was interested in learning more about them. ‘That was that’ I thought, until our first night in Portugal when I received another email from Luis in which he told me he had arranged a visit for us to his Douro winery where his associate Gonçalo could host us. The timing worked out great since we were going to be in the Douro later in the week. How cool was that!
We drove over the hills of the Douro from where we were staying about a half hour away for our scheduled Friday 11AM visit. We had some trouble finding the location and arrived a few minutes late expecting to meet Gonçalo? There was a young couple waiting outside, and another guy who was just getting out of his car, not Gonçalo, but . . . Luis Seabra himself!
After introductions we started right in with a tour of the wine making area, with Luis leading the way with a pipette and a spit bucket. I learned that the young man was a sommelier at a Michelin two star Manhattan restaurant. He said he had pulled some high level strings to arrange for this visit. I didn’t doubt it, since Luis had driven two hours up from Porto at the last minute. In any case, Jacqueline and I were welcomed into the tasting group as though we were equals. What good fortune!
We leisurely tasted a number of barrel samples with commentary from Luis. We then went upstairs to a tasting table where the tastings continued from bottles. In addition to his winemaking knowledge and expertise, Luis is an interesting and gregarious guy and he speaks excellent English. The visit became more relaxed and even friendly as we sampled many bottles. I know that I tasted many wines and I remember that we liked most of them a lot but I especially remember that we were having a great time socializing as well. What a visit! We were later joined by Pedro, a longtime friend of Luis from his college years. After some more socializing and tasting, Luis suddenly announced “Let’s go to Lunch” (I silently exclaimed “Holy shit!”)
We carried several opened bottles from our tasting and a couple of unopened ones in a four car convoy to a local restaurant named Toca da Raposa a couple of towns away. Our table was waiting for us, since Luis had already spoken with the owner & chef and personally selected our lunch menu. I uttered another silent exclamation and gave my best raised eyebrows to everyone at the table. I think that I also said WOW at least once. Just a real nice meal of Portuguese specialties and great wine with a nice group of people. Luis picked up the check. I understood that there could be some quid pro quo between him and the sommelier, but I tried to insist that I at least pay for Jacqueline and myself. He wouldn’t hear of it.
What a magical experience!!!
