Retreat, retreat...real treat

Before we start, I would like to ask you a favour – it won’t take long and it’ll really help us out. Portugal’s main tourism and hospitality association AHRESP has shortlisted us for a media award for our podcast series Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure. We’re in the final five and the winner is decided by popular vote - your vote. Please could you vote for us? ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT - PLEASE VOTE TODAY!!You just need to click here, put in your name and email address (so they know we’re not cheating), we are the third category (“Media & Comunicação no Turismo”) and we’re the first option. Click on us, scroll down and admit to not being a robot, before clicking the big button to register your vote. Oh, and if you haven’t listened to the podcast yet, you can find it here, or in all the usual places. Thanks!The word “retreat” gets bandied around quite a bit in these parts, usually preceded by the words yoga, tai chi or tantric.But ever the mavericks, we went out on a limb and chose wine to prefix ours.And so the first Wine Retreat at the Valley of the Stars was held last weekend...and it was a rip-roaring success.We had a full house of guests from self-proclaimed wine beginners, to a couple so obsessed with vinho that their dog’s called Pinot (Noir)...and we even had a qualified sommelier join the course which was held in partnership with the Hutchins Wine Academy.Joanna Hutchins led the daily and sometimes twice-daily masterclasses, teaching participants how to “Taste Like a Somm,” blind-sampling “noble grapes” on her way into the wonderful world of Portuguese wine – with its 350 grape varieties, many of which are a lot easier to drink than they are to pronounce.Would-be wine aficionados used Joanna’s wine compass to learn how to talk about what they’re tasting, before learning which Portuguese grapes relate to the famous varieties they’ve had before.There were what-goes-with-what classes and a wine-pairing dinner along the lines of “what grows together goes together” and then participants were encouraged to define “their core wine identity” at the end of the four day retreat.We kept everyone well fed and entertained between classes, with a Portuguese wine story-tasting and taking them all to the nearby Vicentino for a tour of the vineyard and new winery by its fabulous winemaker Ana Rita Bouça.Thanks for reading Off-grid and Entertaining in Portugal! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.We tried to give everyone a chance to enjoy the peace and quiet and explore the region, hiking down the valley to our friend Jorge’s medronho distillery for a tour and a tasting.Ana was queen of the kitchen, creating three fantastic meals a day and pulling out all the stops to keep the tasters on trackI did my best to keep the charcoals hot for black pork and grilled fish, and we were blown away by how so many people from such different backgrounds bonded over the (many) bottles.Aged from 30 to 90, participants travelled from as far away as North Carolina and Shanghai to this wild west coast of Portugal’s Alentejo and tasted well in excess of 50 different wines.Among them was Prof Bob Lauterborn – one of the original Mad Men (“I drank beer rather than martinis”) whose academic work led him to create the famous marketing discipline of “the four Cs” (Consumer, Cost, Convenience & Communication).This was a joint 90th birthday and pre-wedding trip with his grandson Evan.We had ex-journalists – a former BBC colleague – business folk and a fabulous American couple who have recently retired to Portugal from the US.It was a first for us all, but we were delighted with the way it went...and the wonderful feedback we received from the pioneer gang of wine retreaters.We enjoyed it so much we’re already getting excited about the next one we will be hosting in October.Running from 1st-5th it’ll be even better...we already have a few folks interested, so if you’re keen to join, please drop us a line for the details as we suspect the next one might be a sell out!And while wine is definitely our thing we also have a couple of yoga and Tai Chi retreats coming up later in the year...and a wedding as well...off grid? Absolutely...and entertaining!And as spring marches ever towards summer and the weeds increase my land-cleaning workload by the day (yes, I am definitely starting the strimming this week!), the wine retreat was just one highlight of early May.We had a big 50th birthday party celebration featuring some of our favourite friends from Bangkok days – a fabulous festa of pig spitting, oyster shucking, Portuguese champagne popping and silent disco dancing.We are so grateful that our pal Isabell Poppelbaum picked our piece of Portugal to celebrate her birthday – and it was amazing to spend time with her and all the old friends she brought along for the weekend.We hiked the coastline to build up an appetite for a lavish lunch at O Sacas – our favourite restaurant in the region – and had loads of extra help from our friends here in the area so we could join in the celebrations as well as keeping the guests fed and watered.And this weekend we welcomed the winners of the Sovereign Art Prize Gala silent auction to stay with us here in sunny Odemira for a crash course in coastal Alentejo.With thanks to the legendary Howard Bilton for inviting us to donate a prize, we were delighted to hear stories from Hong Kong and from around the world from the winners.Canadians David and Liz even brought their lovely friends Carey and Kimberley along for a weekend of winetasting, walking and exploring...and we hope they’ll be back soon and spreading the word among their friends in Lisbon and beyond.It’s only mid-May, but we’re delighted how things have got off to such a busy start.July and August are always crazy here, but with 30C predicted for the week ahead, now is a great time to come and see us.The flowers are in full bloom, our young vines are starting to get themselves properly established, and everything is blooming thanks to all the sunshine and all the winter rain.Come and see us – we’ll offering a special discount for all our readers from now until the end of June.Just book on our website and enter the code JOYOFJUNE to get 15% off.* And don’t forget to vote for us and help us win an award. Here’s a video to show you how… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit alastairleithead.substack.com