I love home cooked meals, especially when I’m in a foreign culture, enjoying their traditional cuisine. I love the anticipation as exotic aromas float in the air, the great conversations that lead up to the first bite and the fervent energy that zips throughout the room as glances are stolen into the kitchen wondering how much time is left before the oven timer goes “ding”.

On this particular night, our friend Beatriz cooked up a feast for six in her Lisbon apartment overlooking the Vasco de Gama bridge. Moses and Eddie from Algarve Buzz, myself and Ryan, Andre Ribeirinho from Adegga and his girlfriend, Beatriz, scheduled a “get to know you” dinner during our quick 2 day tour in Lisbon a few weeks ago; sadly however, we only got a few hours with the two man grew from the Algarve Buzz, as they needed to make their long journey back to Faro in the southern tip of Portugal. So although they couldn’t join us for the meal, we did make the most of our time by tasting three new wines, while aromas of mushroom risotto and red wine drunken pears wafted into the dining room. As I’m sure you can relate, on an empty stomach, there is nothing more dangerous than tasting wines in such delicious conditions

We tasted the 2004 Quinta de Paços Arinto Reserva, 2005 Casa de Paços Loureiro and Arinto and the 2006 Planalto Douro Reserva.

The Casa and Quinta de Paços most likely owes its name to an ancient court (or vilae), at a time when the parish of Rio Côvo (Santa Eulália) was a roman thermal resort. What exactly is …