At the EWBC in 2011 we chose “Storytelling” as the theme. The idea was to create a programme that would be relevant to all participants, no matter what their background or chosen communication medium.

This theme allowed us to exchange stories and experiences in a new way,and explore the relationship of new media such as video and photography to tell the stories behind wine.

At the EWBC in 2012 we hope to do the same, expanding the idea to bring together wine, communications, food, travel and culture.

The theme for EWBC 2012 will be: ‘Source‘

The choice of Turkey as the host for the conference is particularly exciting for wine lovers, as recent evidence points to areas of Turkey being the original source of domestic vine cultivation and possibly winemaking. Several countries in the region make this claim, and we hope to explore what this ancient lineage can bring to the contemporary wine conversation.

However, it is not all about grapes. When it comes to the skill and practice of wine communication, there is an important issue to address.

With the explosion of networks, channels and number of content creators, comes the need for curation of information. It is no longer enough to be adding content about wine, but it is becoming increasingly important to create source of knowledge, or intelligence, either through original research or expert analysis. Content creators will be urged to “Become a Source” not just a disseminator.

With another dedicated stream, the EWBC will also explore the intersection of wine with food and travel online, through “freshly sourced” and the “resourceful traveller”, two worlds that are intimately related to the future success of wine.

The EWBC is celebrating 5 wonderful years in 2012, and in the years since it began, the landscape of online communications has transformed itself from a tool for excited pioneers, to an essential part of everyday life for wine lovers and the wines business.

2012 seems a good opportunity to look back at the origins of wine and wine communications online, as a way to plan for the future, and the continued success of online communicators everywhere.

See you in Izmir!

This year we celebrate our 10 year anniversary, an accomplishment we don’t take lightly considering in the past decade, we have not only reached a broader international presence, but we have also entered into the world social media and blogging. We were the first DO to celebrate blogging in Spain with our competition for the best wine blogger in Catalunya, and we have been educating our consumers through our own blog since November of 2008.

From Catalonia Designation of Origin, we strongly believe that blogs are an authentic opportunity to connect with consumers, to know which products they enjoy and which products they which to improve. It is an opportunity to get past sterile marketing campaigns, and instead, to interact with people on a more personal level. In addition, blogs are working tirelessly to communicate about their experiences with wine throughout the wine world, which is why we feel  a moral obligation to give our support to those individuals who are helping wine producers internationally.

We are supporting the European Wine Bloggers Conference through our contribution to the USB, which will be provided to participants upon entry to the conference. As DO Catalunya feels it is necessary to build a more sustainable world, using a flashdrives instead of paper, is the first step to make this happen. Like many of our producers who are also keen to work more closely and harmoniously with the land, we hope this contribution to the EWBC will help help all of us be more conscientious of our decisions.

Sadly, we will not be able to attend the conference, but if you need more information, or would like to visit, please never hesitate to contact us!

From all of us at DO Catalunya, please enjoy the conference!

We are supporting the European Wine Bloggers Conference because we want wine bloggers to not only learn about this very unique and exciting project, but also for us to learn about social media through you. Hence, on the eve of Saturday, October 31st, we will host an exclusive dinner for you at the internationally renowned Restaurant Eleven.

For those of you not familiar with Restaurant Eleven, it is considered one of the premier restaurants in Lisbon, propped above Parque Eduardo VII, next to the Amalia Rodruiges gardens, and just a short walk from the EWBC host hotel, VIP Grand Lisboa. Hence, your views of not only the old city of Lisbon, but also the Tagus River, are not only breathtaking but memorable.

The etymology of the word stems from 11 friends who desperately wanted to create a world-class restaurant both in and for Lisbon. They hired three architects – Joao Correia, Cristina Santos Silva and Ana Menezes Cardoso – to fashion a 2 story building that embodies both minimalism and organic design. With floor to ceiling windows, light beautifully bounces off the exquisite artwork of two renowned Portuguese artists: sculpture Joana Vasconcelos and photopher Jorge Crus.

The restaurant’s Chef is Joachim Koerper, who was formerly at Girasol, a two Michelin-star restaurant in Spain. The gastronomic concept of Eleven is deeply linked to Joachim Koerper’s skills and to his desire of adapting his creativity to the environment where his restaurants are located, recreating traditional recipes and finding new ways to use the ingredients available from the local markets. Joachim practices a market cuisine of the season since he changes his menus to use the best ingredients available during each season, every day.

We trust you will enjoy this dinner, and hope that this will be the first of many conversations we will have in the near future.

For any questions you might have, please never hesitate to contact me:

Marlene Tavares

Sousa Cunhal Turismo SA
Av. Liberdade 212  SL Dta – 1250-147   Lisboa
Tel.+351 213304542/3 Fax: +351 213304544
Web site: www.l-and.com
Email: m.tavares@l-and.com

Alentejo is the largest region of Portugal and is known for its strong gastronomy and wine culture. The wine region has in total 22,000 hectares (54,362 acres) and is a vast, rural area of flat plains, cork oaks and olive trees. The flatness is broken by the occasional “Monte” or low hill on which a large estate or small village is located.

The Alentejo was the standard bearer for Portugal’s wine revolution, adopting modern winegrowing methods with great results and international critical acclaim. The region has excellent whites, but is best known for red wines which are generally full-bodied, fruity and suitable for aging, its DOC sub-regions are Portalegre, Borba, Redondo, Vidigueira, Reguengos, Granja/Amareleja, Moura and Évora, with Regional Alentejano wines becoming evermore popular. In the last decade, wine tourism became more popular and today this is one one of the preferred destinations in Portugal.

The departure will be from the VIP Grand Lisboa Hotel in Lisbon on the 1st of November at 8:00 AM. On the way the group can enjoy the beautiful landscape and the first stop will be at Quinta do Mouro in Estremoz. The property was bought by the Louro Family several decades ago and releases wines since 1994.  Here the group will do a guided tour with the owner and will be able to taste a selection of internationally acclaimed wines.

At 11:30 AM the group will depart to Herdade do Esporão in Reguengos de Monsaraz, where they will visit the vast winery, taste selected wines from their portfolio, and enjoy a traditional Portuguese lunch.

Herdade do Esporão is situated in a place blessed by nature, with a typical and idyllic Alentejo landscape, at about 2km from Reguengos de Monsaraz, and it is one of the most prestigious wine productions in Alentejo region, widely known for the quality of its wines.

Esporão Estate is an historical place, with its territory formed since 1267, and preserving up to these days some important heritage, like the Tower of Esporão, built between 1457 and 1490, one of the most important towers built during the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern era, and a symbol of the Estate, present in all the products.

At 17:30 the group will arrive at the VIP Grand Lisboa Hotel.

We hope you truly enjoy this trip and, because it is just a taste of the region, we hope this will be the first of many other visits to Alentejo.

ORGANIZATION
The CVRA was created in 1989 and is a private and interprofessional regional controlling board, responsible for the application of the Alentejo wine regulations. The Commission monitors the quality of the wines, guarantees its authenticity and promotes the image of the collective brand “Wines of Alentejo”. The CVR Alentejana supervises the use of the DOC Alentejo and IG Alentejano on bottle labels and controls the issuing of its guaranty seals. The head-office is located in Évora, a designated World Heritage site by UNESCO.
The Commission also runs the Alentejo Wine Route, promoting the development of Wine Tourism in the region.

To get to know more about the wine region, visit: www.vinhosdoalentejo.pt

To see photos of the Alentejo, please download this pdf.
Contact at CVR Alentejana:
Maria Amélia Vaz da Silva
Tel: +351 266 746 498
Mobile: +351 927 140 044
Skype: maria.amelia.vaz.da.silva
Email: m.amelia@vinhosdoalentejo.pt

Cortes de Cima has been a supporter in the form of wine of both the #EWBC 2008 and the #WBC 2009, and we were also the first Portuguese winery to start a winery blog over 1 year ago.

I think my first post from our blog sums it up nicely as to why we believe so strongly in these events:

Cortes de Cima is renown in Portugal as a pioneer and even a renegade. Perhaps because we arrived here as foreigners 20 years ago (Hans the winemaker is Danish, and I, the marketing manager, am from California) we’ve always tended to do things differently, even sometimes, downright ‘illegal’. We were Portuguese pioneers in creating our winery website back in 1999, and again pioneers in being the first winery to sell online. By once again being pioneers in Portugal by starting this winery blog, we will endeavor to live up to the Bob Dylan quote, printed on the back label of our ‘illegal’ Syrah wine,’ Incógnito’ – ‘To live outside the law you must be honest’ . We hope to give you an ‘honest’ insight into the daily goings on here at Cortes de Cima, even when we are a bit ‘outside the law’…(more on that later!)

Where Your Adventures Begins

We will start off with a guided vineyard and winery tour at Cortes de Cima, to work up your thirst and appetite. As the olive harvest, is sure to have started, you should also have the chance to see olive picking first hand!

Next, we will serve lunch based on the local Alentejan specialties, local lamb, fresh goat cheese, stone oven bread, and of course Cortes de Cima’s own extra virgin olive oil!

To accompany the buffet lunch, we will open the full range of our wines and do a live wine tasting with the winemakers themselves on hand! You can log onto our wifi in our tasting room, and Twitter while you Taste! (Don’t forget to enjoy the breathtaking views from our tasting room across our own vineyards and the rolling Alentejan plains!)

Afterwards, we will visit a nearby village, Vila de Frades, where the Roman tradition is still alive of making wines in old clay pots, or ‘Talhas’ (like the pot we use on the Cortes de Cima label). Goat cheese artisans and bread makers using stone ovens are also nestled behind the picturesque village walls, for those who want to have a quick peek!

Also in Vila de Frades, and not to be missed, are the amazing ruins of S. Cucufate, one of the largest and best preserved Roman villa in the Iberian peninsula.

If you are driving, plan to stop in Évora on the way back to Lisbon, a unique UNESCO world heritage site!

Transport: If you have your own wheels, it’s a 2hr drive from Lisbon. http://cortesdecima.com/tourism/visit-us/

Alternatively, take the train (www.cp.pt) and we will arrange a pickup and drop-off from the Cuba train station, 15 mins away.

• Lisbon – Gare do Oriente Departure: 09h10 Arrival to Cuba: 11h19
  • • There is also an option of leaving the Entrecampos station, near to the VIP Grand Lisboa at 9:21. More info here)
• Cuba – Departure 17h33 Arrival to Lisbon – Gare do Oriente: 20h36

If you would like to join us, simply sign up on our Open Wine Consortium Event page.

And if you need any additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact us at: wine at cortesdecima dot com or on twitter at @cortesdecima

Editor’s Note: Information on registration for the tasting, dinner and post conference trip will be available in the near future.

For centuries, the picturesque DouroValley was devoted almost exclusively to the production of Port wine grapes. But in the late 80′s and 90′s, table wines began to enter the scene made from the traditional Port grapes.

With the intention of promoting Douro table wines as high quality wine, five leading producers in the Port Valley pooled our resources together by forming the “Douro Boys“. Our five properties cover a broad spectrum of micro-climates and schistous terroir, each offering a bottled snapshot of our respective vineyards – the commitment and dedication to making original wine with true typicity in every vintage. On a good day, we would like to believe that we are also a knowledgeable group of winemakers, spanning two generations, which include: Francisco Olazabal of Quinta do Vale Meão, Cristiano Van Zeller of Quinta do Vale D. Maria, Jorge, Tomas and Miguel Roquette of Quinta do Crasto,  Dirk  Niepoort (Quinta de Napoles) , as well as Francisco and Joao Ferreira of Quinta do Vallado.

However, we are not only known for our unique and original wines, but also for our unconventional events and tastings. To kick off the 2009 European Wine Bloggers Conference on Friday, October 30^th at the VIP Grand Lisboa in Lisbon, we invite all EWBC participants not only to an in-depth tasting on the 2007 vintage, followed by dinner highlighting traditional Portuguese cuisine, but also a post-conference trip to the first 30 interested participants to the breathtaking Douro Valley on Monday, November 2^nd through Tuesday, November 3^rd. The Douro Boys believe that the most important tool in understanding a wine is knowing the people, the landscape, the soil and the climate behind each bottle. Therefore, what better way to introduce you to our wines than through a 2 day adventure through our vineyards and our wineries?

On the other hand, it is also essential for a producer to directly interact and communicate with the consumer through a wide variety of tools including social media. The European Wine Bloggers Conference is a great opportunity for us to learn more about the new generation of wine communication and the concept of social media. We are proud to help to participate and support the event, and trust it will support Portugal as a dynamic and growing international wine region.

We look forward to meeting you!

POST TRIP SCHEDULE

If you are interested in attending the Post Conference Douro Trip, please email gabriella@catavino.net

Monday November 2nd

8.00 :: Leave VIP Grand Lisboa by bus
13.00 :: Visit at Quinta Vale Meao, tasting and lunch
17.00 :: Train to Ferrao
18.30 :: Tasting and Dinner at Crasto.
Overnight at Vallado and Aquapura

Tuesday Nov 3rd

9.30 :: Visit of Vallado, tasting of Vallado and VDMaria wines.
13.00 :: Drive to Napoles. Lunch and visit there.
16.00 :: Departure to Porto airport or by bus to Lisbon.
18.00 :: Arrival at Porto airport. Individual departure