Wine Tasting (III)

Posted on May 2, 2007August 31, 2007 by nuno

Another Wine Tasting session with some friends.

This time, we tried 3 red wines from Douro and 1 wine from Bairrada:

Aneto, 2002, Douro: fruity, soft tannins. A blend of 5 types of grapes: Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Nacional, Tinto Cão and Souzão. Everyone loved this wine and this was the favorite one from Douro. The price was around 10EUR.
Cistus, Reserva 2003, Douro: also fruity and with soft tannins. This one is a blend of 3 types of grapes: Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional. The average age of the vineyards used for this wine is 21 years old. The price was around 13EUR.
Encosta longa, Reserva 2003, Douro: this wine is a blend of 4 types of grapes: Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Touriga Nacional and Tinta Barroca. After tasting all wines, no one really like this one. Maybe because all the others were superior, maybe not… A few hours later, everyone enjoyed the wine.. Maybe we were all tipsy by then, or maybe the wine needed more time to open… The price of this wine was around 7EUR.
Primavera, 1995, Bairrada: this wine is made only with 1 type of grape: Baga. It aged enough to delight us all although it can still get better in a few years. Good body, powerful flavor and very elegant this wine was the favorite one from everyone. The price of this wine was around 10EUR. Baga is a typical type of grape from Bairrada. Usually people either love it or hate it. Usually wines made from this type of grape show their splendis after 10+ years.

My fiancee gave me a Wine Tasting game, so this time we had extra fun during the session. We blind-tasted all wines. Each bottle was numbered from 1 to 4. Each one of us had a paper to take notes. I asked them to guess the most expensive wine, to rank each one, and to write everything else they want about each wine.

We all identified the cheapest one and we all thought the wine from Bairrada was the most expensive one. Ah, I have to say that no one is a wine expert.

Internet and Crime

Posted on March 29, 2007February 8, 2009 by nuno

Crime on the Internet is old news, specially crimes about sexual predators and child pornography. In my opinion, in the near future we all will need to be a little more careful about the things we publish on the Internet for our own security. There’s a niche of crimes that hasn’t been exploited yet and I realize a lot of people are not even aware about the type of information they publish online.

I’m talking about the use of the Internet to help burglars rob homes. If you think about it for awhile, a lot of people publish on their blogs where they are. Some even have maps of their current location. They also publish on their blogs about the toys they buy, their stuff, etc. and all this together can help a burglar choose its next target. However, I have not read about something like this happening yet.
Today, I read a story about the use of Orkut for other types of crimes. Earlier this month, a 43 year old woman was robbed and brutally murdered after a date set on Orkut. More recently a 19 year old boy committed suicide after a defaming message that was spread on Orkut. For this reason, and after several battles between Orkut and Google, the Brazilian authorities blocked or are going to block Orkut (whatever it means) in Brazil.

Wine Tasting (II)

Posted on March 12, 2007August 31, 2007 by nuno

Last night, some friends and I tried some red wines.

This time, we tried the following red wines:

Quinta Vale do Bragão, Douro, 2002 – An amazing wine from Douro of course. Established on the Pinhão slopes in the 18th Century, Quinta Vale do Bragão belongs to the Borges Costa family. Its varieties of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz and Tinto Cão are carefully vinified and then aged 12 months in small oak barrels. A balanced structure carries great complexity to a pleasing finish.
Herdade de Muge, Ribatejo, 2004 – The Herdade da Muge is a concentrated wine with complex berry and spice flavours, and well integrated oak.
Quinta do Couquinho, Douro, 2003 – Another amazing wine from Douro. Its varieties of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Franca are carefully vinified and then aged for 12 months in French oak barrels. Powerful flavor, very elegant, a long finish and excellent tannin result n an elegant and perfectly balanced red wine.

wine tasting

From the above 3 my first choice is the third one, although for most of my friends it was the first one. Anyway I loved both. 🙂

Lei anti-tabaco em Portugal

Posted on March 3, 2007January 8, 2008 by nuno

Após os meus comentários sobre a proposta de lei anti-tabaco em Portugal no meu post Lei anti-tabaco entra em vigor hoje na França, parece que houve novidades.

A proposta de lei foi aprovada na passada quinta-feira em Conselho de Ministros. Posteriormente será viabilizada pelo PS no Parlamento e aplicada já a partir de 2008.
O ministro da saúde Correia de Campos voltou atrás quanto à aplicação da nova lei e justificou que os 4 anos para aplicação da mesma não fazem sentido, pois o Governo termina o mandato em 2009 e não seria honesto fixar o início da entrada em vigor para depois. (eina, iluminado!)

Houve também outras alterações na proposta de lei, nomeadamente no pagamento de coimas pelos proprietários do local.

Aqui um sumário da proposta:

Dentro de um ano será proibido fumar em restaurantes, bares e discotecas com menos de 100m2. Com área superior, podem ter um espaço de fumo não superior a 30% do recinto total.
Máquinas de tabaco em lugares frequentados por menores mantêm-se mas com bloqueio a menores.
O consumo de tabaco é proibido no interior e exterior de todos os estabelecimentos de ensino, excepto no exterior no ensino superior.

Vamos lá ver se o Governo consegue realmente levar isto para a frente ou não… 🙂

SONAECOM sobe preço da OPA para 10.5EUR

Posted on February 15, 2007August 31, 2007 by nuno

A Sonaecom decidiu há minutos subir a oferta para 10.5EUR.

Eu tinha uma teoria sobre esta OPA. A minha teoria era que o Belmiro queria separar o cobre do cabo, coisa que conseguiu durante a OPA, quando o CA da PT veio a público anunciar o spinoff da PTMultimédia, quer a OPA vingasse quer não. Sempre pensei que que a Sonae não subisse a parada e que quisesse deixar a OPA morrer, visto que já tinha conseguido o que queria. Era óbvio que os 9.5EUR não iam convencer ninguém, além de que, muitos dos accionistas minoritários de peso iniciaram ou reforçaram a sua posição na PT depois do anúncio da OPA (ou seja >9.5EUR).

Hoje as coisas mudaram. Ouvi à pouco o Henrique Granadeiro no jornal da 2 e o discurso dele já foi bem diferente do costume. Eu também já não faço a menor ideia como esta história vai acabar. O que há uns meses dava como certo agora já não dou, embora ainda tenha algumas dúvidas que vingue. A única coisa que sei é que se a OPA vingar não será certamente bom para o país nem para o consumidor.

Lei anti-tabaco entra em vigor hoje na França

Posted on February 1, 2007January 8, 2008 by nuno

A lei que proíbe o tabaco em locais publicos, entre os quais escolas e centros comerciais, entra hoje em vigor na frança. Os restaurantes/bares/discotecas beneficiam de um período de adaptação até ao final do ano.

Nós aqui no burgo continuamos na mesma e na minha opinião este é um dos pontos negativos do nosso governo. Não é ponto negativo tanto pelo facto de não termos a lei, é um ponto negativo pelo facto de o governo ter feito tanto alarido no ano passado sobre este tema e no fim deu o dito por não dito e voltou com uma desculpa no minimo lamentável.

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Wine tasting

Posted on October 15, 2006September 5, 2007 by nuno

Last night, some friends and I had a wine tasting session at home.

I bought 2 bottles from Douro, 1 from Alentejo, some spicy cheese, ewe cheese, creamy cheese from “Serra da Estrela”, bloodpudding, chorizo and I also made a caprice salad for everyone.

The wine choices were:

Evel Grande Colheira 2003 from Douro – http://www.realcompanhiavelha.pt/
Crasto 2005 from Douro – http://www.quintadocrasto.pt/
Cortes de Cima Syrah from Alentejo – http://www.cortesdecima.pt/

All of the three wines were really good and I would recommend all of them, but the big surprise was Crasto. Made from “Tinta Roriz”, “Tinta Barroca”, “Touriga Franca” and “Touriga Nacional” grapes, this wine while still very young, has complex tannins and a balanced acidity. I’m sure it will be a potential “honey from the gods” in a few years.

Cortes de Cima has always produced really good wine and it has never disappointed me. I have been familiar with wines from Cortes de Cima such as “Chaminé” and “Cortes de Cima” for some years. It was the first time that I tried this Syrah which is well structured, with complex tannins and good acidity. On a whim yesterday I decided to buy the top wine from the selection – Incognito 2003 – which I plan to keep in my cellar for the next 2 or 3 years.

Evel was a shot in the dark. I had heard good reviews about it and therefore decided to purchase it. Powerful body and flavour are interlaced with the boldly structured acidity and excellent tannin resulting in an elegant and perfectly balanced red wine.

Time for changes..

Posted on October 11, 2006September 5, 2007 by nuno

I guess I moved to WordPress, which makes perfect sense since I’m a PHP guy. And so far I like it better although I don’t see too many feature differences. I must confess that I’m not addicted to blogs though.

I also moved to Dreamhost. These guys rock!

I would like to thank Bruno Pedro for providing me hosting for my blog until now…

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