Friday, September 4th - "And then were none"

No rush to get up this morning. Lana went out for a power walk to help her meet her goal of 10,000 steps today. Perhaps the most valuable item we have had during our stay in the Alentejo region is a fantastic free little map titled "Rota dos Vinhos do Alentejo" we got at Herdade dos Grous. This map lists various wineries in the specific wine areas of the Alentejo. For each winery listed it provides their name, full address, phone number, GPS coordinates, email address and website. Invaluable in contacting the winery and inputting the exact GPS coordinate using our vehicle GPS unit.

 Valuable!

 Map when fully laid out.

Lana's picture of a "grab and go" store she saw on her walk this morning.

Previously we covered how there are no flag persons working in Portugal. Instead, they have these traffic lights set up when single lane traffic is needed. The lights are coordinated between red one way and green the other when there is only one lane available.  Then after a certain amount of time, they change so traffic the other way can proceed.  Brilliant no?

Our first destination is near a town called Cuba.  :-)

Our destination is the Vidigueira region. This wine region in the Alentejo provides a natural demarcation between the north and south area of Alentejo. It was recommended by Pedro (from our visit to the Herdade Do Grous/and map giver) as a unique geographical area with wines that offer a unique approach. It is a valley and very flat. We had about 5->6 wineries to visit theoretically. I did get a response from Rocim, A Groindustria, LDA winery that they were open today for a visit. 

When we arrived we were advised that the girl (Inês) I had been communicating with was ill today there was no chance of a tour. A wine tasting was offered and we accepted. The girl spoke minimal if no english, but easy to point to which wines we wanted to taste. This winery is absolutely beautiful and no expense spared.

Entrance to Rocim winery.

Lights outside of the wine tasting room. Lana liked these as they looked like giant hanging olives.

Table decoration of rosemary in a glass.

Our wine tasting comprised of a Branco (White), Rosé and a Tinto (Red) which happened to be their 2011 Reserva. Very good pours and all for free. We didn't purchase any wines, but they were all drinkable.

Interesting architectural mixture of stone and wood. The stones were contained in metal mesh which were made into cubes.  These cubes lined the walls and must absorb the sunlight to keep the building cool.

Inner courtyard and entrance to the wine tasting room.

Very interesting abstract art throughout this beautiful winery. At the bottom, you can see the sampling bar made of glass, concrete and wood. 

Inner courtyard.

Countryside surrounding the winery. Basically, this area is very flat.

We are the only visitors to Rocim. That is our car parked in the minimal shade.

GPS stone marker on the side of the road. You can see a physical marker along the road on occasion that has the coordinates we've been using for the GPS.

The Alentejo has a large number of cacti. This 6' one exists outside of the Ribafreixo winery.

We had a lunch reservation for this afternoon at 13:00 at Ribafreixo Wines and their Restaurante da Adega. Another winery located near Vidigueira. We are looking forward to another winery lunch experience. Total cost for our lunch was 22Euro not inclusive of the wine flight.

Leftover stems in a bin and now leaking red grape juice.

Appetizer of Paio de Porco Alentejano (Pork filled sausage). We have eaten this dish at a number of Alentejo restaurants/wineries and it was very delicious here.

Our lunch entree was the Polvo no Forno (Octopus in the Oven). Super tender octopus, lots of olive oil, very tasty and a fantastic lunch meal. This could be the second best octopus I have ever eaten. Lana was laughing at the english translation on the menu because she was picturing the chef trying to stuff a giant octopus into the oven with tentacles coming out everywhere :) How do you get an octopus in the oven? Very very carefully.

This is our dish of baked Octopus within onions, potatoes, garlic, bayleaf and parsley. We need to figure out how to duplicate this at home. We dipped some of our bread into the sauce and that was magnificent.

Lana ordered a dish of grilled vegetables.

Our dessert of Barrage de Preira (Nun's Belly). Our server told us this was a mix of cinnamon, eggs, almonds and sugar. Yeh!!!!

In addition to the awesome lunch, I had the medium-priced wine flight (15Euros) that included five different wines that were great pairings with our lunch. In fact, they leave the wine at your table and you can continue pouring. Mostly white wines. We purchased two white wines to complete our wine purchases; Gáudio - Verdelho (sweeter/tropical fruit about $6CDN) and the Gáudio - Alvarinho (brilliant and also about $6CDN). Yes, fantastic white wine at ridiculously low prices.

Antonio Caetano (server and wine guide). Check out the colour of this Rosé.

We decided to head back to Évora as the chances of getting into another winery during harvest season without a reservation/appointment were slim and zero. We had a very successful day with a visit to a stunning winery and then a memorable lunch/wine pairings. We now have purchased 19 bottles of wine which exceeds our original budget of 18 bottles. My fault.  ;-)

Lana is wanting her last dish in the Alentejo to be Arroz de Pato (duck rice) which is one of the top regional specialties of this area. Back to Cafe Alentejo that we ate at a few nights ago; great food and not good service. According to their website and our experience it is open at 19:30. Nope, we get there like other potential diners and they are closed. A server pokes his head out and says they are one at 20:00 tonight. We provide our name for a reservation. Head out to walk around Évora in another beautiful night.

When we return slightly before 20:00 but the sign on the door still says closed. Hmmm... we notice people already in the restaurant so we head in. Anyway, we get the same table we had before and order Pica Pau for an appetizer (yummy) and then the main event of duck rice.

Arroz de Pato (the picture doesn't do it justice). Cooked rice with duck meat and chunks of chorizo. Very delicious and worth the wait! Flavourful and cooked in a duck stock?

After dinner we went for a walk in what is now darkness. We came across this pizza place. Check out the pizzas you can order. Definitely, a Portugese take on pizzas. Some examples of topping below: tuna, chorizo & pimento, salted cod, salted cod with egg, fruit (banana and pineapple)...

We returned to our room to pack our suitcases with the 19 1/2 bottles of wine and other purchases to weigh in advance of check in. We need to be below 50 pounds per piece of luggage or the charge is extravagant. Our three suitcases weighed in at 40, 45 and 46 so it appears we will be below the weight for each suitcase! Yeh!!! Phew!!!! 

Walking for today totalled 7.5 kms. Another day of indulging. Our time in the Alentejo has been everything we hoped. Superb food/cuisine, excellent wines and friendly people. 

The title of today's blog references our wine purchases and the fact we have no more 'slots' open for wine.