I wonder what percentage of wine lovers who live here in the Algarve drink locally-produced Algarve wine on a regular basis? I’m not just talking about us foreigners, but local algarvios too.

The vast majority of Algarve wine is, of course, consumed by tourists, visitors who rightly choose to try a glass of the local vinho and are very pleasantly surprised. Many thousands of them are so impressed that they pay a visit to one or more of the local wineries. 

Spread the Wine embraces artisan wine producers from across Portugal, and carefully selects a small portfolio of premium wines from the Douro, Dão, Alentejo and Vinho Verde regions.

Our quest for wine and food takes us, sometimes, on rough tracks and to remote hamlets, but we bring back gorgeous products and inspiring stories of family owned businesses and socially committed projects.

Quinta dos Vales' Marquês dos Vales DUO 2012 red, its most recent cuvée, was distinguished with another gold medal, this time in a nationwide competition.
The combination of Touriga Nacional and Petit Verdot grape varieties, which had already dazzled the jury of the “IX Concurso de Vinhos do Algarve” last month, saw its great potential highlighted once more by winning its second gold medal of the season in the 2016 edition of the competition “Vinhos de Portugal” organized by ViniPortugal in cooperation with Revista de Vinhos.

This year's winners were tasted at the Open Door 2016.

While the results of this year’s competition of “The Best Wine of the Algarve” were not yet known, “Open Door” visitors could already enjoy the awarded wines last Sunday, 10th April, including the Gold Medal winner Marquês dos Vales Duo Red 2012. Despite predictions of heavy rain, sunshine graced Quinta dos Vales' 14th edition of the event which, once again, had a high number of visitors.

With the new tourist season ahead, it might be interesting to find out  if the Portuguese wine industry finally has made some progress in the extremely bad marketing approach it has been using so far.

Every year in all of the supermarkets thousands of tourists struggle with the same dilemmas: what is a good wine, what is probably not such a good wine and what wine should I buy?

The campaigning organisation, Avaaz, has become involved in the effort to see that supermarkets do not destroy unsold food, but give it to needy people instead through charitable agencies. 

Algarve Daily News has covered the new law in France which enforces this and the French campaigner's initiative to take the concept to the EU and this peptition should back up his work.

Quinta do Lago, the exclusive heritage resort in the Algarve, has just launched brand new steak restaurant, Bovino Steakhouse -  it blends the best in modern Steakhouse with contemporary urban design.

The latest addition to the resort’s already thriving gastro scene offers the best in modern steakhouse dining complemented by contemporary urban design from renowned international designer, Lázaro Roza-Violán.

The O Barradas restaurant is situated in a converted farmhouse between Silves and Lagoa and is run by Luís Pequeno and his German wife Andrea.

The garden dining area and the covered garden terrace both provide the perfect setting for a sultry evening but throughout the summer there is an added dimension.