Deck the Halls with Filipa Pato & William Wouters: 'Tis the Season for Bairrada

Class transcript:

Hi, welcome, everyone uh, welcome one and all. Uh, pleasure to have you all with us. Happy holidays to uh, everyone joining us. Um, as always, I'm gonna give uh, all of our uh, listeners uh, opportunity to uh, join the chat room. Um, we are incredibly honored to have with us all the way uh from Varela, Portugal, Felipe Pato and William Waiters. Um, my Flemish is not very good. William, is that the correct pronunciation? On your own, it's okay, it's okay, okay, brilliant, but now we are, we are so honored, uh, to have you all with us.

I'm immensely excited to try through these wines and, uh, for you all to share, uh, your passion for not only one but food um is such a big part of what you do in Varela and you know that appeals, uh, to me it appeals to us, uh, for obvious reasons, uh, we're joined as always by, uh, Zoe Nystrom, uh, she's joining us, uh, from um, lockdown, uh, in, uh, Los Angeles, California, Zoe's getting very fancy so we're expanding, uh, nine time zones, uh, that I know of, uh, today, um, but again thank you all so much, um, for taking time out of, uh, your December. holiday uh to join us uh chiefly uh felipe pato and william waiters um joining us all the way from uh portugal um we are uh working with two flights two separate flights of wine today um and dealing with uh whites and reds um from uh the two of the region that uh philippa and william are joining us from uh we have a flight of white wines based largely on uh bicalb and a flight of reds based exclusively on uh the finicky but noble baga grape uh it should be said uh that philippa and william make some fabulous sparkling wine as well uh that was available of course uh through our store and if you haven't gotten a chance to try it uh new Year's Eve makes a a fabulous excuse, um, and uh they're coming from a region that actually, uh, Phillipa, you make quite a bit historically of sparkling wine in the region. Have you not? Yeah, in fact, by another region is a cool climate, and we have the soils very good for sparking wine because we have limestone soils, so it's like, like in Burgundy, we have a lot of minerality.

Uh, and as we have a lot of tradition with the local grape varieties, we make sparkling wines from the local grape varieties. So, the one you're showing, the white sparkling wine, is a blend of three local grape varieties: Cercial, Bical, and Mario Gomez, so it's three typical grape varieties cercial gives you more the freshness the salinity and the and become more the structure and the body and mario gomez is more aromatic uh so is uh we have this treasure of portuguese varieties local grapes that we we try to uh refine and do the best way possible we we we are very near to the atlantic coast so we have a lot of breeze from the atlantic so the the summer are not very warm we have a cool cool climate uh comparing to the rest of portugal and so we have um not very high altitude but very big breeze from the atlantic we would cool down the temperature summertime and uh so um we have we have that's why we we can make sparkling wines with the traditional method so we we don't make any fining or filtration just finish the stability in the bottle and that's why the bubbles are really well mixed in the in the wine because uh it's no intervention uh and the and the bubbles are really fine and well integrated uh in the in the in the wine so it's a very appealing sparkling wine zero dosage so we don't make any we only do the degorgement without any liquor the dosage is completely dry so you heard it at home uh don't bother with champagne uh this new year's eve uh get your experience of uh sparkling wine uh from a beautiful by data You can see, oh wow, they're drinking. Oh wow, you guys are so... you're so on brand, uh, amazing, amazing, um, and yeah, Christmas at least not out, um, at home. Uh, joining us whatever holiday you're celebrating. Thank you so much, uh, for for joining us. Thank you so much for joining us, uh, we're going to get off here. Um, Merry Christmas of course where applicable. Introduce Felipa and William already, uh, Zoe joining us, uh, as well from the West Coast, uh. Apologies, uh, to those of you who are nursing hangovers this Monday, uh, I thoroughly enjoyed our epic year in review, uh, last Sunday.

I may have gone overboard um when I did the final analysis, uh. uh it was guys it ended up um or i think uh 12 days ago i think it ended up uh 12 days ago and it was four to 12 less beginning of july really so um everyone please don't 나�iy please very very comfortable style of wine i do not talk about delete bottles at four ounces each uh which is um uh more than a bottle of wine i've you got all three of those flights so good good on you and i'm deeply sorry I'm deeply sorry, but I thoroughly enjoyed that. This is a fabulous denouement for our 40th lesson. We're going to take a brief winter break going into the new year, but I am tremendously excited to come back strong on the 24th of January.

We will have a new president on the 24th. We will have a new vice president. Sadly, the new president is not a drinker. Joe Biden says that there were enough alcoholics in his family already, but Kamala Harris loves wine. She's from California, so we're going to do a special California-themed inaugural class on the 24th. I have no idea what I'm going to do with myself next Sunday at 4 o'clock. I imagine that I'll be teaching the dog something about what to drink on Sunday afternoons, but it's been my honor to have you all with us. It is my honor now to welcome Felipa and William. We're going to kick things off with a bit of verse, as we always do.

We're going to start with a poem called The Herdman by Fernando Pessau, who is one of Portugal's most famous romantic poets. He adopted a lot of different pseudonyms. He wrote this bit of verse under the name Alberto Cairo. I apologize in advance. My Portuguese accent is terrible. We are tail of goat. Wine school. So The Herdman feels like a fitting poem to end the year with. I'm herdsman of a flock. The sheep are my thoughts, and my thoughts are all sensations. I think with my eyes and my ears and my hands and feet and nostrils and mouth. To think a flower is to see and smell it. To eat a fruit is to sense its savor.

And that is why when I feel sad in a day of heat because of so much joy and lay me down in the grass to rest and close my sun-warmed eyes, I feel my whole body relaxed in reality and no longer. I feel the whole truth and I'm happy. Beautiful bit of verse in any language. And I asked William and Philippa if they had any poems that were their particular favorites. And I did not. I do not know, it should be said, a lot about Portuguese verse. But William brought my attention to Maritza, who is an international recording star. She's an international recording star. In the genre of Fado music. And so we're going to share a little bit of that just to, you know, get, you know, the party properly started here. This is Maritza. Señor, as only Maritza does get the party started.

All right, you get the feel for it. She is soliciting Mr. Wine there. And she is trying to honor him. The song goes on. Obviously, this is the English translation. This is the English translation. The translator is, of course, the internet. Poorly translated in English. But I've been replied to wine, the loose leaf dancing in the wind. That was sunshine in the sky that brought sweet affection to grape. I still have the warmth of the sun. And so I also give life. I increase the value of anyone in the room. And I only do harm to those who judge me. Nobody who belittle me; it's an offense. I repay it here. I'm like this: your grace is right, and it's ingratitude. Bad-mouthing wine. And to prove what I say, come on, my friend.

One more cup. Thank you. For pointing that particular bit of verse out to me. I'm sure it's better, you know, when Maritza delivers it than when I do. But at any rate, thank you. We're going to keep this short and sweet because we have, you know, some really fabulous wines to taste. And obviously, William and Philippa have much more to say about the region than I ever could. But I just wanted to orient you all. Portugal is a fascinating country when it comes to wine. It is, you know, a bit of an outlier at the western edge of Iberia. So this is Portugal. The modern nation emerged at the end of the Reconquista. They've been making wine in Portugal since like well before. The Romans found their way to western Iberia.

And, you know, there's ancient evidence of the winemaking that went on there. Romans brought with them some of the clay amphora that had inspired Philippa and William's work in the cellar. Barreira is a coastal region, essentially. William and Philippa are mere 15 miles from the sea. It is about equidistant between Lisbon and Porto. It is famous for Laetal. There is a highway that stretches from Portugal, from Porto, rather, to Lisbon. If you're making the trip, make sure you stop for Suckling Pig in Barreira on the way to one city or the other. The most famous grapes there significantly, Bacal on the white side and Vaga on the red. Historically, the vignerons of the Duero often supplemented their own wine with grape juice from Barreira. The miracle of Portugal for me is that the native grapes survived intact.

There are almost 300 grapes unique to Portugal. And Portugal never went the route of a lot of other emerging wine regions and adopted Cabernet or Chardonnay. They really protected the unique local traditions of these varietals like Bacal and Vaga. And a lot of that had to do, you know, sadly, with stunted 20th century history dominated by the Duero. And, of course, there was the dictatorship of Antonio Oliveira Salazar, who himself was actually from the larger region. He comes from a winemaking family in the Douro, fascinatingly enough. And a lot of his economic policies favored huge cooperatives, which still dominate the industry to this day in Bairrada. But that meant that Felipe's grandfather ultimately, you know, had a lot of really amazing source material to work with.

And when he decided to start making his own wine in the 60s and 70s, he had a wealth of tradition to ultimately adapt and to, you know, modernize. He had amazing source material to work with. And then her father, Luis Pato, the original Vaga rebel, had all sorts of really fabulous old vine source material to work with. Which brings us to, finally, our fabulous guests, Felipe Pato and William Waters. And I have questions for you all. I'm going to do a picture of you all and your father, Louisa, because I feel like, you know, you come from a winemaking family and it certainly doesn't begin with your father. Your family has been making wine for hundreds of years, as I understand it.

But, you know, in terms of the modern history of your family's wine, your father gets, you know, the bulk of acclaim. What was it like to grow up with a famous winemaking father in a region like Barreira? You found a nice picture. Yeah. Yeah, it was fabulous. You know, in that time, I was just a student and I didn't have much contact with the outside world. So for me to have family wine growers was always a chance to have people from around the world. Because, you know, my grandfather was the first in the region to start bottling his own wine. So he was already a winemaker. He was a pioneer. And then my father, he started traveling to show the originality of the grape varieties to the world.

So it was fantastic to have clients from all over and the experience to speak many languages and, you know, and speak with a lot of people. So for me, it was amazing. And then, of course, I got influenced by the spirit. And I decided to work outside Portugal. So I went to Australia, to Argentina, to France. And then when I came back, I started making wine. And then I met William also. So wine connected me to the world. So it was an experience. And family is, of course, the big input for me with a passion for wine, for Barreira. William, what was your own wine journey like? You are, as I understand it, from Belgium. And there aren't a lot of vineyards in Belgium. So I'm guessing you didn't come from a winemaking family.

No, but I come from Antwerp city, which is the biggest Bordeaux. A lot of Bordeaux is historically grown because of the port of Antwerp. And the French-speaking part of Belgium, they drink Burgundy. And the northern, the Flemish-speaking part drinks Bordeaux wine. So I come from a generation, fifth generation, a family. So one of the best friends of my father was the owner of Chateau Saint-Pierre in Saint-Julien. And, you know, being a six-year-old, I slept in the tower of a chateau in Bordeaux for almost a month. And it gives you kind of an impression. And from one thing comes another. So the passion for wine started there. And, you know, I went to catering school and then sommelier and stuff. And then I met Philippa. She came to check out her customers in Belgium. And then, you know, from one thing comes another. So I've read a lot about the two of you. How did you meet? She came to check out the crazy people selling our wines, you know, really. So be careful with the winemakers coming over from abroad. You never know what happens.

At that time, this is almost 20 years ago, I was selling Bicinho by the glass. It looked like the Dinamica. And there's quite a lot of it. And, you know, at that time, it was not normal. People in Belgium were drinking mostly French wines, of course. And then to sell Portuguese white wine by the glass was a bit strange. And then anyway, so we started to talk. And then she said, this summer I go to Sicily. And she told me, in Sicily, they don't make any good wine. So, I picked up a bottle of Frappato from Cosmo, one of my best friends in Sicily. And I gave it to her to drink this, you know. And then we spoke again. We met again. It's so cool that it was Cos too.

Because that kind of like prefigured your work with ceramics. Really. Yeah, because we went to visit just quite a few times. She's a very good friend. Were you familiar with Filippa's wines prior to meeting her? Yes, I bought the wines before meeting her because I knew her father first. Really incredible. But life is strange anyway. You fell in love with the wines and then you fell in love with the woman who made them. Ultimately. Yes, completely. Great. Great. Now, we're going to kind of kick things off here with a flight of Bical. And I wanted you to talk a little bit about Varela, talk about the work that you do both in the vineyard and the cellar. Because you are reporting to us from Varela, which historically is known for wine.

Wine from red grape Baga. But the corner of the region that you're in, you know, has been more well known for white wines, as I understand it. You know, in Varela, we have something very special that is Baga. We always speak. And it's interesting because the tradition always say, always, if you see old vines, it's all Baga. So it's a grape variety. You can live a long time. And it's an exception if you compare to the rest of Portugal, because normally you have a blend of grapes. In Douro, we have a blend. In Douro, we have a blend. Here, the tradition is Baga. And this, the grape variety adopted here, that's why we found so old vines. So we work biodynamically. So this was an improvement we did in the last 15 years.

When we started to increase. To increase our property. We decided to work biodynamically. And then you realize that the local grapes, they adapted much better to this practice. So we started to work especially with the whites. Because in Varela, we have a lot of white grapes also. The Bical is the main grape variety. You can see on the picture. And I love that. I didn't realize this before. You know, I was doing some reading for this class. But what does Bical do? What does Borrada de Moscas mean? Borrada de Moscas is picked by the flies. And when you look on the grapes, you see the black spots. That's why they say picked by the flies. You see the black spots? This is typical for Bical.

And then Borrada de Moscas is the name they give a lot of times to Bical in Douro. So now you know something. If you see a white grape bunch looking like this, with the black spots, in Portugal, it's 90% Bical. You find it also in Douro. But it's always in the blend. In Douro, in blend. But in Borrada, it's in mono-sepache. In mono-varietal. Yeah. And Bical. Oh, sorry to interrupt. What do you like about Bical as a grape and working with Bical? Because it's not the only white grape that you work with in the region. But it has really become, you know, kind of the star of the show. And, you know, the grape that you are working with the most for the sake of the show.

Because the valley where we are, if you ever come to visit us, the village where we are, it's a village of 200 people on the hill, surrounded by vineyards. And I think 70% of the vineyards around is all Bical. And this valley was already known more than 200 years ago to be the first white wine to be exported to the ex-colonies of Portugal, to Brazil. And because also Aveiro is very near. Aveiro was the biggest port in Portugal at that time. Also, not only for the export of the wine, but also for the import from the Bacalhau from Norway. Really. If you ever go to visit Aveiro, you'll see still the Salinas and everything, where they picked up the salt, to salt on the Bacalhau. Yeah. It's very interesting to see.

And you'll see still the old cabins, you know, where they dried all the Bacalhau. Yeah. Very funny. There's always a why, you know. It's very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. But, so, our village, Ois de Bairro, means 'ice' in the dialect, and Bairro is 'clay'. So, if you look down the valley, top of the valley is more chalk. You go down to the valley, it's clay. And from north to the south, in our region, is the Sertima River running, which is like the veins of the water, in fact, in the region. So, it's very interesting to see. You see really the difference. You see the big limestone is full of fossils. This is a new plantation we did this summer. The stones, you see the wall, the youngest son, is all the stones we got from this vineyard.

It's crazy. It's hard work. Is that your son holding the rock? The youngest one. He placed a red thing, stone. We have a question. You've got a stone. We have three different expressions here. And we're going to start with the dinamica. Is that a nod to your biodynamic, you know, kind of principles that you're working with in the vineyard? Yes. And to dynamize also the people who are cultivating grapes to tell them, please stick to the local grapes. Don't turn to international grapes. We support you. And to dynamize again the interest, in fact, in agriculture. In agriculture towards vineyards. And also the dynamism between the trees and the vineyards. This is one of the particularities of Bairrada. We don't have vineyards only monoculture.

It's vineyards with pine trees, with fig trees, with olive trees, with a lot of bushes around. This creates a much more biodiversity and much more healthier environment for the vineyards. So that's why we put the olive trees in the middle in the label. You see olive trees and the vines. Because it's the dynamic between all these ecosystems that we keep on. So a lot of times most of the vineyards are mechanized. And we cannot mechanize because it's completely, you know, so wild that it's impossible to mechanize. But we do this effort to keep all this scenery alive, this museum alive. That's important. So the first white wine is mainly Bical. But he has a little bit of Arindo. That is another grape variety that you find in Portugal from the north to the south.

But it adapts very well to the limestone soil near the Atlantic coast. So it was always present in Bairrada in a smaller percentage. So it has more of this lemony, more salty touch. That is typical from Arindo. And this ferments 10% in casks. The rest is fermentation in tank. We only use natural yeast. So it's very natural. We don't do any fining or finesse. Creaminess in the palate. That can match very well with the oysters. Or I see somebody on the boat. My God. I could have someone. Yes. We could have some oysters. Oysters and sushi, and all kinds of crudës. It's a very nice combination. Your website is very impressive. As is all your design work.

And, you know, I think one of my favorite things about the family, I feel like each subsequent generation is, you know, very, there's an independent streak, clearly, in the population. There's a lot of family. But, you know, each succeeding generation kind of innovates and, you know, updates, you know, what you're doing. So, you know, your father was very much an innovator. And then you and your sister are innovators in your own right for the sake of how you're working. And, you know, the art, the packaging, you know, the way you present your wines certainly has a lot to do with that as well. Do you work with a graphic designer for all the label art? No. We did it ourselves. Are you serious? Yes. Wow. That's amazing. It's brilliant.

It's all really brilliant. And it's hard to do. It's really hard to do yourself effectively. And I should say, William, a big part of what you love to do when people, you know, come to Valletta is pair food with your wine. We have our own pairings. We couldn't find any Portuguese, good Portuguese cheese. So we have some local cheese to go with this. You know, a lot of your pairing notes centered around cheese, especially with the white wines. But we threw some fancy anchovies into the mix, some citrus-cured swordfish. And then there's like a Guinea hen confit. That's a little more for the baguette than for the white wines. But what kinds of things do you like with the Bical? And then it tastes Bical original blend.

With the first one, as we just said, mainly crudos and the carpaccios of fish, you know, and also, as Philippa says, oysters. And nice sushi, of course, and sashimi. You know, you think dry Riesling and you drink Bical Arinto. And you're doing the right job. It's funny, too. I love, for the sake of the whites, texturally, they're all very different and distinct, but they're all, you know, really satisfying as well. And I really adore that. Now, how does the first one compare to the Post Quercus? Because it should be said. You know, I knew of your wine some, you know, prior to trying the Post Quercus. But, you know, that was, you know, really the wine that, you know, I really first got excited about.

And then at Tail Up Goat, there's a whole section of our wine list that grew up around this idea of Post Quercus. So we have a whole section of the wine list that is composed of wines aged in amphora. And most of them are Georgian, but some of them are Portuguese as well. And obviously, there's a long history in Portugal of using wine. So we have a long history of using ceramic. But when did you start to, you know, ferment in those vessels, Felipa? And will you speak to the tradition of using it? We started experimenting in 2012 because, in fact, we have a long tradition with the Romans in the region. And Barada has a lot of clay. So it's limestone soil. So we have a lot of ceramics.

So I was always curious to try with amphora. And of course, I went with William to visit Kos. And then I could learn a little bit more about that. And then we started to buy different amphoras and develop this new way of vinifying because it's completely different. And we do a red wine and a white wine. This white wine. We ferment like a red wine, in fact, because we ferment with the skins. With this stem, by hand, normally 30%, 40% of the skins of the grapes. And then the rest we press and ferment with the skins. It's quite a romance. Of course, it's more tannic because the fermentation with the skins always brings more tannins. It's like we have a sensation of more tannins. It's drier, more intense.

So it's no filter or decanted even. So it's a bit cloudy. It's not gold like in Georgia because the history of Barada. I went to investigate how was the fermentation in the past for the white wines. And I found out it was two ways of fermentation of the white wines. One that was the normal one. You press the grapes and you ferment the part without the skins. But also in the old days, they used to ferment the white wines like a red wine. So that's why we wanted to do the same way, but in amphora. So we have more control of the fermentation. And of course, you have the temperature. Yes, you see in the middle. We have also a better way to control the temperature. Because the clay is very good for fermentation.

Because it controls very well the temperature. You ferment at a lower temperature naturally. So we ferment and then we age it also in amphora. That's why you see me taking a sample from the amphora already. You look very happy to see the sample. Yes, I think this was the wine we're tasting now. Of course, this is the wine we're tasting now. Now, how do you decide what vineyard plots, which specifically, what fruit you use in the Post Quercus and what would be better in a different cuvee? We normally decide two hours a bit earlier for the Post Quercus. Because the berries are more crunchy. And you have a little bit more acidity. So we use more or less same vineyards as the Nosa. The Nosa, we use only one vineyard that is in front of our house.

In the Post Quercus, we use three different vineyards. So it's kind of balanced each other. And it's fun to try this wine. So we poured these out into, you know. Little four-ounce vessels. I know for you must be horrifying. But, you know, what is nice is it's kind of like a mini decanter. And I know, I think a lot of your wines, especially when they're younger, benefit a lot from air. Yes, yes, yes. Especially the Post Quercus, both wines, they change. They evolve a lot. And so, you know, opening these wines and pouring them out, you know, they taste very different initially. Versus, you know, after, you know, spending. You know, a few days in a four-ounce. And, you know, now I'm tasting and it's much more full-fruited, much more fleshy.

You know, whereas when I first opened it, it was, you know, very, you know, kind of mineral and waxy. And, you know, less and more like kind of lemon balm. But less of that, you know, kind of fruit character. And as the wine evolves, you get, you know, much more of that. And it's kind of like, it's almost like the wine is tight at first and then it kind of relaxes. You know, over time. And it's really fun to see that evolution. Yeah. That shows also the wine can age in bottle as well. Because it has a good antioxidant capacity to age or to leave it for two days. Zoe, do we have any questions from the commenters? To start off, when and why did you start adding Arinto to the Bical blend?

It was since the beginning. Because, in fact, the Arinto was the first vineyard we took over. And then we started to work with the Bical as we had more vineyards available in this valley. So, we started then to work with the Bical. But, in fact, Arinto is like 25, 30% of the blend... ...you know, it's to make sure we're saying the correct thing. So it's important, it's a certitude. And it's very hard to do that way in Bairrada because, as I told you, we have a cool climate and the springtime, it tends to be quite humid. So we need to be very careful about what we grow crops. So summers, they tend to be dry. So since June, we have dry weather. But April, May, we sometimes have a humidity period.

So we need to be attentive. And we work with a lot of plants, searching every year. We found a lot of plants in the area to make infusions, to spray. And then we could achieve this certification. That for us is quite important. Of course, Bill says this is correct. We are from families already established and high quality. But we need to improve every year. And you need to go further. Every generation has to have a step further. And for us, it was important to do this certification because we live also with our kids in Bairrada. So it's something we want to improve and create the more biodiversity possible. In addition, we have the matter that we guarantee credit to the inhabitants of Bairrada.

You look at the values that come with this wine, what does the change look like? We've tested them, still so, excellent. Are there certain risks that you assume by using natural yeast? What are they and what is very specific about the types of yeast that you see in all the different types of vineyard sites that you work with? We make always a pied-de-cuve, so we pick some berries from each vineyard and then we ferment it a few days before, and then when the yeasts are ready we can inoculate the juice and then it starts the fermentation. But we see the advantage of working biodynamically is the quality of the yeast also is much better. So you have much more, even with the wild yeast, the wines have purity, very nice fruits, character, and a lot of minerality, very expressive.

And the fermentations, they go very slow, so instead of fermenting like in one week, it stays fermenting like three, four weeks, slowly and steadily, so we don't have any problems of residual sugar or so. It's always, our wines are dry, so it's naturally, we don't make any interruptions or so. And the sulfur is low, so we have very little sulfur. Filipe, I noticed with some of the wines, particularly the Post Quercus, you know, it looks like there's just like a little bit of like residual CO2 in some of the, is that intentional or is that just a product of? Because as we keep it in the amphora, and amphora is, like, less porosity than the cask, they tend to keep more of the CO2 from the fermentation. So that's the reason it's still a little bit of CO2. So that's why it's important to garaffe. The garaffe is very important because it puts, you degas a little bit the small amount of CO2 that is still from the fermentation. So I wanted to ask about this last wine, the Noce Calquerio. You call this your grandmother's wine, and I tracked down, a picture of, here's a picture of you and your grandmother online.

What about this, you know, speaks to the winemaking tradition of your family? Yeah, my grandmother is 94. She's still in good shape. She's inspiring still. She was; she still works. In the winery when she's feeling like, you know, she likes to manage, William calls her the general.

17 years old, she loves to give orders, so it's very funny and we got a lot of inspiration, you know; she's very strong, and she likes a lot to see things moving. Even for Christmas Eve, she was here at home for dinner and she was in great shape. I still, it's incredible to see the memories she has from so long ago, and she still tells a lot of crazy stories for us to learn from. She was the wife of my grandfather, the father of my father, who started to bottle the vines, so she learned a lot from the past. How old are the vines for this particular Bical? The Bical is around 40 years old, vineyard, from this valley.

And this is a vineyard with; is all limestone with the stones inclined, a slope inclined, so you have a morning time sun that is the most interesting for white wines because you keep the acidity and the the maturation is slow. And this remains in casks, we use 500 and we use 1,000 liters, casks. So the oak is not very dominant, it's fermenting oak, but the minerality and the structure are there, so it balances the wine. We always say the oak has to be the frame, the heart comes from the vineyard, it's our philosophy. I like that, I quite like that. So we're going to switch gears now and taste some Baga. And Baga is a fascinating, I find a fascinating grape.

I think your father occasionally compared it to Nebbiolo or; you know it has some of that fiercest acidity and tannic structure, and it can be a challenging grape to work with in a region like Valle de la Valle. I read that you prayed to Sal Pedro, who is it, Sal Pedro, the patron saint of rain because Baga's a late ripener and your region gets a lot of rain in the fall, so it can be very difficult to get a late ripener. You're perfectly correct. Especially in the fall, it can be a challenge to get a late ripener in the fall, so it can be very difficult to get a late ripener. In the 90s and around 2000, in the last five years, we were lucky not to have that problem, because the summer was dry and we didn't have the rain during harvest, so it was more sympathetic, Sal Pedro.

Sal Pedro is the saint who commands the water, the rain. So when he opens up the rain, we don't like it so much in that period. I also like that William is playing Sommelier now. He can't turn the Sommelier gene. I can't see empty glasses. I have that problem too. Salud. So we start with the Dinamica again, and you aged this one entirely in a tank, do you know? Yes, yes. In fact, in the red vines, we only work with Baga, and we try to do different faces of the same grape. So the first, we leave it a long time on the skins, but we extract very little, and this is from younger vines, but very nice locations. And so we do that. We do that. We do that. We do that.

We do that. We do that. We do that. We do that. We do that. So it's quite fruity, aromatic, but easy drinking. Normally Baga is always associated with the high tannins and the wine you need to leave like 10 years to start to drink. I think working with Dinamica, you can manage better the tannins, and you have tannins more succulent, more fruity, and also, of course, the way of vinification influenced the style. So Dinamica is really a very pleasant, easy, easygoing, very nice pure fruit, very aromatic, pleasant. Is it like you know it's almost you know that Beaujolais style for Baga. It's more that like clue, fresh. We ferment very low. So, in fact, it's not carbonic fermentation, but this, with this, the fruity, fresh, very aromatic.

So Dinamica is really that Beaujolais style for Baga. It's more that like glue, fresh, and easy going. We ferment, you know, very low. So in fact, it's not carbonic fermentation, but with this one, we do that. way of unification goes until the same style of aromas so we leave it a long time on the skin but only extraction in the beginning and so it's all wild yeast fermentation very low sulfur very low so we one of the things we improved was since the beginning was this influence of the sulfur we reduce much much a lot the sulfur because sulfur attacks a lot the tannins of baga and then you have much more tannic yes so we try to have the grapes on great conditions that's very crucial to have

this beautiful fruit to have this nice fruit on the glass it's funny too because i think of you know historically you know i this is just you know me you know a i mean a wine gringo i've never been to portugal but you know um you know and i i spent the bulk of my life in washington dc but you know i imagine you know baga is kind of like a more rustic country wine and i like to imagine you know someone like you know your grandfather grandmother you know pouring it back with you know like the knuckle of a suckling pig you know that's that's the wine you know that's that's what i imagine for it but you know i like that this one you know this is not a rustic wine this is a fresh fun wine it's almost like the flirty side of a baga as opposed to something you know more more serious and you know john wayne like you know this is just kind of um and i think it's i think it's fun that you know you you can have both from the same grape have you ever played with carbonic maceration on baga um i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i think i prefer this way because um you have more the the character of baga so in fact um this was an old way of vinification uh and um you know uh is you know in the when i was a child i remember when i started to drink of course to have this kind of wine in the local when did you start i have 14 15 oh i remember i don't know probably younger but uh he's a typical uh smell of during harvest and you know his memories of the of that period uh so i i i really like this uh this style of uh vinification you know wine that we drink quite young and uh aromatic and uh pleasant it was in fact was a was a a way to show that you know we don't need merlot or toriga to uh soft down the tenants of baga it was it was a is a bit um i think if you work well in the vineyards the viticulture is is well done uh we can uh we can have uh tenants uh this fruity style more um aromatic of course uh the bag is is very aromatic variety so we we want to keep it like that um so then contrasting that with the post quercus post quark is much more serious kind of brooding uh you know in terms of the the quality quality of fruit um you know and it's fun because you know it is relatively low in alcohol um you know surprisingly so but it has all of these you know um almost uh you know sinister not an evil way but you know kind of like uh um you know darker fruits and um you know herbal uh you know smoky uh that that i find um older vineyards also it makes a difference it's from older vineyards and a bit more extraction and more extraction than the previous one um and then we age it in amphora so uh we we keep It uh then for I think works very well for Baga; it carries um a lot of liked the DirecTV for uh the Kontinyu that the the bagas so far from the Common Chariot. Yeah, absolutely. Just how ethereal and aromatic they are. The Post Quersis is one of my favorite wines of all. I'm so instructed while pairing wines, particularly at Tail of Goat and Reveler's Hour, too. A few questions from the audience. I have a question particularly about the Post Quersis of why you decided to bottle in 500 milliliters instead of- in one liter. They had one liter, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your philosophy is not in that choice.

We started with half-liter bottles because she tasted the wine and she liked it, and the wine was not bottled yet. She tasted from the amphora, and she put the nice thing on her block. And at once, people started to film from Norway and Finland and Belgium and Holland and England to have the wine. And then we only had- We had, you know, 2,000 liters. So we said, how are we going to do this? So we bottled in half-liter bottles to satisfy more customers. And the year after, my friends in Belgium, they told me, you have to stop with these baby bottles. You have to come up with a serious bottle because the wine is too much glue glue. We finished it too fast. So then we bottled in one liter.

But then we had problems in the US because people didn't understand the one-liter bottle. Unfortunately, because one liter is equal to cheap wines, and then, OK, now we bottled everything in 75 cl. But, you know, we did it for three years, and it was a lot of fun. But now everything is more regulated. I missed it a bit, because the first time I tasted with you guys, Philippa said that the 500-milliliter bottles were for her, and then you got them for yourself. You know, I'm one of the 12 kilograms, and Philippa is not even 60, you know? I'm double. I'm still baby. There is a lot of- I'm particularly our guests, indeed, who love the 500-and-a-half liters along with the liters, depending if you're a single household or a double household.

Yeah, yeah. There's just some shout-outs to encourage that type of.. So yeah, some like 500, one liter, or a dentist, certainly. Indeed. Where is your Amphora from? It doesn't look like any Cavevery that I've seen in Georgia. Did you commission that, or how is it so unique looking? These are for me. Italy. Italy. Oh. Wonderful. Italy. Yeah. We try different ones, and these ones are more similar to the clay from here. And we make different tryouts, and we prefer this one for the Bagua and the White also. So we use these ones from Tuscany. Excellent. What was the inspiration behind your design? Yeah. Well, I think it's really important for branding, particularly the 3B. I do want it to be known that there is one of my favorite, another lady beverage professional of Washington, DC.

She actually dressed up like a bottle of 3B for Halloween last year, because she thought that the packaging was so cute. We sold it at Disney. Yeah. But where did you get the inspiration behind all of these graphic designs? They're so unique and so special. Yeah. OK. The logo itself was designed by an architect, a friend of ours. From Porto? Yeah. From Porto. And the challenge for him was to make it look like a grape, but also the face of Filippa. And this is almost 20 years ago, but she didn't change a lot. Exactly. And then there is just the 3Bs, the ideas back, and the B for Barada. So 3Bs back and B Calbarada. And OK, the rest of the post-curriculum is after oak. So we had a brand contestation from a big Spanish grower. And we had to drop the brand so-called, but we don't like to call it the brand. It's the name of a wine. And then I thought, you know, the CU in Spanish, it's a Q. It's like, leave the 'but' to the Spanish. So we dropped the CU and put two points. That's OK. Now everybody still reads post-curriculars, but there's no more CU. That's OK. You know? And then, of course, authentic wines without makeup. That is something, you know, was a philosophy from the beginning, to make wines without too much, you know, to avoid all intervention.

And then from one thing to another. In my wine bar in Antwerp, I used to have a lot of bio-producers. And biodynamic wines were already 20 years ago. You know, it's a small city, but it's a very fashionable city. And there's a lot of things happening there on the wine scene. And Filippa came over, and she tasted a lot of bioproducers. And we went to visit a lot of guys. And then you understand also why it's interesting also when you work mainly on mono varietal, you see really a difference right away, because you have the expression from every location, which really pops up much more. You know, when you work with a blend of grapes, okay, you can balance easier. But in fact, you know, you don't have this real expression you have when you work with a mono varietal.

Mono varietal from three different villages. Okay, you recognize the varietal, but you see right away which village it comes from. And it's amazing, you know, really, because it's only seven kilometers away, but this, I know people say terroir, you know, blah, blah, but terroir really exists. We can see it very, very well in our stores. We can see the situation here. And any of you who want to visit us, we take you around the vineyards and you see it, you know, and you feel it, and it's really crazy. It's very interesting also to see. It's a big puzzle. And this makes it such a challenge also to work, to do a better job in the vineyards, to get even a better expression and to balance better between the three different villages we work in.

You know, it's like, you know, when you have a symphonic orchestra, you know, the drummer went out, the day before, he doesn't do well enough, you know, the other one takes over, it's okay. But when you have three violin players, you know, one of the three went out the night before, you hear it right away. So we really have to be focused on what we're doing, you know, in the vineyards. I always try to compare with music because I like music. And you hear it right away. And, okay, just because I saw something popping up from the Rolling Stones, I'm a big Stones fan. Let's go rock and roll. Rock and roll. And Philippa, you know, she tries a lot of times the Rolling Stones t-shirts and stuff. It's really fun.

But there you see also Keith Richards. He's not always playing right, right? Sometimes he's on another planet and he misses something that Ron Wood takes over. It's okay, you know. It's just to tell, you know, the balance is important. And when you work in mono varietal, it's even more important because you can't fake anything. It's not possible. You're a soloist. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. Will you talk a little bit about your approach to hospitality? Because, you know, in as much as, you know, you two make wine and, you know, you're raising a family, you know, in the Portuguese countryside, you know, you also have this global brand to run. And then you host visitors at your winery. But you don't have a traditional tasting room.

How do you welcome people to Varieda and show off your wines? So what we do with people is give a full experience, in fact. Because if people make the effort to come to this, you know, this lost country, corner of Portugal, because it's really, it's out of the main road, right? You have the highways passing, but, you know, people pass. It's a bit like Kansas City in the US. Everybody flies over it, but nobody stops there. You're in Portuguese flyover country. It's a bit the same here in Barada. If they don't stop to it later, they don't stop here. So when people make the effort, we take them to the vineyards. People, Philippa takes them for one hour, half, you know, and visit a lot of vineyards and explain about all the work we do.

And then they come to the winery and develop my own small private restaurant here. And these days I choose my own customer. So it's much more fun. And then I cook mainly with all the products we have here, our own chickens and stuff. And then Philippa, she cooks. She brings sometimes a wild fennel and a wild oregano. And, you know, a lot of things in the vineyards, which I can use. And then I adapt the kitchen to the wines we serve. And it's a lot of fun, really. You do a five-course menu with six different wines. And, you know, and then people, they also enjoy the wine with the food. And you don't charge enough for it. But this is what I hear from some people. You know, it's not all about money.

It's about passion and sharing. It's, you know. So, William, what would you, so we're moving on to the Nosa Calcario. What do you like to eat with the old Weinbäga? And these are, some of these are centenarian wines, are they not? Yeah. It's a blend between the 2018 is very particular because, you know, we have one vineyard called Misao. It's a pre-feralxic. But in '18, we didn't have enough production because we don't use any barrique. So we didn't have even tonal production. So we used a liter of it. And then we blended it also in the red Nosa. So here, in this one, the 2018, we have 140-year-old vines. So between 140 and 80-year-old vines. You know, this one is, in fact, from four different vineyards. Yeah. And it's very intense. For me, it's a bit like when you taste Burgundy, you think Volnais. You know, a nice Claude Deschenes, a wine with some tanginess and a certain structure. I would serve this, of course, with duck.

We're well-pitched. You know, you need meat with a certain structure. Very fleshy. I want something a little gamey, you know? Yeah. Yes. Wild deer and stuff. It's fantastic. Oh, venison. Yeah, it'd be great. Yeah. This is, it's really, and the nice thing about this wine, you know, you open it the day before even, it will show better the day after. So you don't have to finish it in one dinner. You can have also the lunch after. You don't have to push to drink too much. I love about all these wines that, you know, as much as, you know, people try to reduce wine to a series of tasting notes. These are, these are sensual wines. You know, they're about feel.

They're about texture as much as they are, you know, about a series of, you know, flowery aromatics or, you know, fruit tones or whatever, you know, the feel of the wine is very important. And, you know, I find, you know, as, as someone, you know, like yourself, William, that, you know, pairs food with wine ostensibly for a living, that, you know, that textural piece is, is always more important when you're thinking about, you know, what goes with different dishes. It's, you know, the feel, the lasting feel of a wine that, you know, kind of determines what it will go up with. And I love the, you know, the grip is not severe on this wine, but there's something like satisfyingly chewy and meaty about it.

And, you know, you want something, you know, equally meaty and chewy to go along with it. I just want to say to people, we are not a big winery yet. To organize weddings and stuff. Intimate wedding is possible. But it's not like in California where, you know, I see some things passing there. It's like, oh no, please. I'm going to show up, I'm going to show up the Château. This is, so this is Château Pato right here. And they, It's small. It's small. Do you live above the cellar? Yes. Yes. We live on the first floor. This is the worst, we're not finished yet because the road is still not finished here. Now, now with everything more or less finished, but we're starting a new project. There's, there's a lot of stuff.

Next door also. To receive people even better. Yeah. That's that's further corporate functions and the 200-person weddings. Oh wait. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining. So I'm sure people have more questions. And we offer a customary toast. If you have more time, please do. Hang around if you can, but one of our, one of our illustrious, uh, regular, uh, attendees, uh, has uh a bit of a performance to offer here; um, so I'm going to toast as I always do; um, I always say, uh, to all of you know, I want to say that I, I'm so honored, uh, Felipe and William, that you are joining us, especially in the midst of the holidays; you're two of my favorite people, uh, in wine, and I love, you know, the spirit that you embody; you know, you are embracing, you know, the tradition of your region but doing it in a forward-thinking way, and, you know, with this spirit of hospitality, um, that is so genuine, that you know, I think we can feel it, you know, six time zones away; and, you know, cheers to all of us, all on together; uh, Heidi if you're out there, uh, unmute I'm going to do it myself, please if you haven't already, Heidi is somewhere in the mix, I hope, otherwise, otherwise, I'm gonna be very wait, can you hear me? You're good to go, all right, all right, okay, so here we go, oh shit, can you still hear me? Yeah, so last week I said made this big thing about how this song is really obscure and then when I was looking for it to like really nail it in my head I discovered that it's been done both on Glee and The Gilmore Girls, so you've heard this song. Okay, I call this 'Alone Together Blues', Bill, we love you, so we always will, from the early Reeling's right through to our trip to the Finger Lakes, oh not to mention Madeira. That went so well with these cakes, we appreciate your pairings; they brighten our palettes. You're not just a meat or fish guy; you even do salads! But mass-produced wines are boring us, so won't you pour for us, Bill? Bill, we love you so, we always will. You brought us Pet Nat and proved that there exists good Beaujolais, Bill. You even got me to love this wine from Georgia. We anticipate the poem, the maps, and the pictures; we wish you could make wine from water like that dude from scriptures because mass-produced wines are boring us, so won't you pour for us, Bill? We love you so, we always will…  I wrote these words and I forgot them hold. On, uh hold on, wait just wait this is so embarrassing, uh, okay I'm like dying of embarrassment right now. We believe in you, we believe in you. Okay, this is the best part, first I just wrote it, it's okay. We love you, so we always will. You've taught us that every glass of wine contains history and that when we buy, we can support the world we want to see. So come on, Bill, yes, come on Bill, won't you pour for us? Bill, alone together, blues please pour for us. Bill, won't you pour for us? Bill, alone together, blues please pour us. Bill, won't you pour for us? Bill, alone together, blues please pour us. Bill, won't you pour for us?

Bill, alone together, blues okay. The lesson is don't drink before you sing. I hope that deserves another chair, to Heidi, alone together, and to your zebra curtain here. Cheers! Oh, that was beautiful. Thank you so much; that redeemed pandemic for me. You just did it, uh. Zoe, what do you got? I can't believe I forgot the words that I fucking wrote it was perfect. Oh man, thank you Heidi, that was beautiful. Um, uh, questions about wine? Oh, would you recommend any wines from the um, the Azores in particular? Yes, yes, the wines from our friends uh Antonio Massanita – oh he's amazing yeah! In Azores Wine Company, he's doing great stuff. You should try the Terrantes and The Arinto is very nice, yeah it's amazing, yes there's a Rinto um on the Lees that's stupid good uh he's also on um uh Levy Dalton he has this like French influence but uh Antonio is on uh I'll drink to that it's a great episode you um he talks about the project in the Azores it's it's super cool um is that is that the same Arinto that you work with there's a different Rinto no it's different yeah yeah there are a lot of but it's very good what it does really yeah very good um do you till sorry what do you uh your vineyards do you plow your vineyards do you um ah yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yeah yeah we we um work the soil yes we work the soil Um, like I don't know in english how you say but, uh, winter time we put ground up and then, uh, and now we do it in May so, uh, sorry now March, uh, we take away the the soil and, but you know we keep the grass uh okay, uh, in between the lines we we keep the grass um and and and we take away only for summer ah with the horses no, no, no, no, no, no because you know, if you see, if you see in the back this is the the way our vineyards look from Baghia, it's impossible to go to work with roses, and it's also the you have um you've actively worked you know in some of your vineyards to make the plantings more dense uh as well which I think is really interesting you've Added funds to existing vineyards, yes, yes, and uh, we, we keep the, we keep this, we, we use the ships, uh, for, uh, winter time, so they, uh, they eat the grass, uh, this, we, uh, we have winter time the ships in the, in the vineyards, but then for working the soil, well, um, we, we do it, uh, with the by hand, in the old vineyards, you know, with the, with the small motor cultivator, because it's not, uh, on the, on the line, um, and, uh, so we, we keep a lot the grass until, uh, um, the humidity is there, so in normally we have humidity until, uh, may, so we better keep the grass, and then, uh, all in summer we, we work the soil, um, this seems like a very good pairing with mutton, it should. Be said and the the density is high because, uh, this was one of the things we did, uh, the old vines they have normally 7,000 plants per hectare and then the plantations made 20 years ago was just 3,000 um and now because because the and the lines were too large and uh so now we're trying to make some more of the multiple vines because of the uh the plantations.

Also, I said identity because also it tends to protect more the soil and then you have less evaporation of the of the water uh during summer that's important. Make their way onto the menu, sorry do the sheep make their way on to your menu no, no, no, no we have we have seven sheep now this. Feels like a good pairing though yes yes yes. In fact, we have a collaboration with another producer of sheep, so we have them for four months, and then it takes them to his land to eat more grass, and so it's a kind of a cycle. That feels like a good business model, like a sheep sharing arrangement. It's better than horses in the old vines, that's for sure.

We put some chickens as well, we put them together, because we have a typical variety in the north of Portugal, that is the black chicken, a very beautiful chicken, and we put them together with the sheep. This year we also brought some Belgian chickens to use. Because William prefers the meat. It's typical from the area between Michele and Antwerp; it makes a cuckoo; they almost look like eagles; the rooster gets five kilograms; these big chickens, but anyway, the meat is fantastic. Anyway, if one of you guys comes by, also visit us, please let us know; we'll be happy to receive you. And William makes a five-course menu; it's amazing; it's really great. Normally our program starts in the vineyard, so I show the vineyards around morning time, 11 o'clock, and then William makes a fantastic menu; so we stay with our guests like four or five hours; it's amazing.

Billy's going to bring 20th or 6th of November. You guys are much better at monitoring the chat, I feel like monitoring the chat than I am. We're reading it, we're watching it on the i-mic, so we have a big screen. I wanted to show off your Belgian roosters, there they are, in all their glory. They look delicious. This is the Belgian rooster, you're joking with me. Zoe, what else do you have for the sake of questions? We had a question about particularly the bread. There are many types of notes that you get, like fresh cut rye bread, or sometimes it goes to a croissant picture, but when we're not talking about autolysis from particularly elite's aging, where do the notes from Baga come in from? I didn't get the question, sorry.

I think she's saying that when some of the Bagas have more kind of like a spicy, grassy rye, like whiskey kind of thing. Yeah. It depends, but this is, depends the locations also, right? Yeah. No, I think we are now 15 or 20 maximum growers focusing on Baga now in the area. Wow. The new projects, there are new projects coming up also, which is nice. And then you really see also the work they're doing. It's from different areas in Bairrada, and it looks like a cliche, but it's a bit like Côte de Nuit, Côte de Beaune in Burgundy. You know? You feel certain ones. They come from a different part of Bairrada because of the spiciness, and I say this: the density also of the wine is different, and it's not only about the winemaking.

It's really got the tea with a certain terroir location. We feel it because a lot of times we eat in the small taxis, like the local bistros. Every village has his own bistro, and it's where the people work on the field. They go to have lunch there for seven euros, you know, with the soup and then a main dish, whatever. It's a stew, what they cook in that day, you know, that's it, the daily dish. And then you can drink the wine from the local producer from the village, and then we always, a lot of times, we order the wine, and then for one liter you pay, it depends, between four and six euros or whatever, but the wines are just from the tank. And it's really, I say, domestic wine.

It's like, you know, made in the gods. Yeah. They make wine like their father made and like their grandfather made. And whatever, there's no sophistication on the wine, but you feel a certain expression also from the certain- Profile of the place. The profile of the place. And this is interesting for us also to understand better also. Well, I think you're still discovering like the tapestries of Baga, it's like, and people, you know, that's, I mean, Burgundy is amazing, but it's too expensive for anybody. And then I think the exciting thing about a place like Vallada is that like, you have the same chalk. You have, you know, a historic grape in Baga, but it's just developing, you know, it's like, you know, being in Burgundy in the 13th century, you know, like the monks are still discovering, you know, what they're working with.

And, you know, I think it's always more interesting to be in a place, you know, that is becoming that way than it is to be in a place that's already discovered. No, but I think the first single producer of both of these, his own wine was the grandfather of Filippa. And this was in the, just, just before the end of the, the Dictatorship, we still have wine from 64, from 64 from him. And he was the first single producer bottling under his own name. And the first, the first democratic election in Portugal was in the seventies, wasn't it? Yes. Yes. And before, you know, before everything was bottled in cooperatives, so, you know, and then, and then big, big negotiations like a bit in Burgundy in the fifties and sixties, they both won it all over.

And they, you know. They just made a blend and they put it in the market, but there was no, there was no, no sense of place. Yeah. No one thought it was a certain style of wine. Were people still, you know, were people like your grandfather, Filippa, still, you know, did they have, you know, a plot of old vines and they kept that for themselves? Was that tradition always intact? Some. Okay. Yeah. Some, yeah, some growers, they, they, they, but you have to understand also in the Dictatorship, everything was owned by the state. Right. You know, so it was only after the Dictature, people, people could try to get their, their property back, but there's a lot of, I mean, strangely going on a lot of politics going on. It's a, it's a different period, you know, really people don't speak about this in Portugal. Yeah. So it's difficult, you know, the country is paralyzed for a while. Yeah. Well, I mean, we're paralyzed, we're paralyzed now, so it's okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not saying it's okay. No, no. Okay. Different, different kind of paralysis, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was about 40 years, you know, really. 

It's my big one. No, no, no, no, it's there like, you know, I didn't even notice. This, this is like a. Just a surprise, you know, to calidad. Um, I'm like, oh, my goodness. So I'm like, are you sure yes. One of the, uh, I'm not sure. I want to, I want to added two, and I think there was some, there were some possibilities. OK.

Drink now and with the right pairing, like with William and Bill were suggesting. But the NOSA is the one with bigger aging potential; we can leave it easily 20-30 years easily. I always say that or we drink it early, like 18-19-17, or we better leave them for eight years and then open again because the bag is a period that's closed down, and then we need some some time in between the lessons. Yeah, so we need a bit of time, like eight years, then to open up again and and with the secondary flavor. That's it. That's why I always recommend either drink early or leave it for eight years minimum. So, I want you guys to lead us out. I'm so honored that you joined us today, Heidi; thank you so much for your song.

We love you, Zoe! All the love out to you on the West Coast all love to everyone at home still on chat. I think this will sound better in Portugal... But is there a traditional New Year's greeting or toast that you deliver in in Portugal? I feel like it will sound better in the original Portuguese than it would in English. I'm putting you on the spot; I apologize, but it should be said that one of my favorite one of my favorite words in any language is Portuguese so well, there are few words, so I had I played soccer growing up in a bunch of Brazilian soccer coaches, and one of them said, 'A lot.' There's a great word, ganas, ganas - it's like desire but it's like more; it's more than desire; it's like you know fire inner fire.

But there's another another great Portuguese word that's saudade; it's kind of like nostalgia but it's different; it's like sadness tinged with joy. It's a great word, but so what would you say? So Portuguese a beautiful language what would? you say to us all for for the new year so that we can toast um grande ano para o próximo 2021 fantástico fantástico ano e beba bem e beba muita vaga beba muita vaga thank you so much to you all at home happy new year we love you all be back um grande ano para o próximo 2021 fantástico fantástico ano e beba bem e beba muita vaga beba muita vaga ah thank you so much to you all at home happy new year we love you all.