Check the 50 Great Portuguese Wines by Jamie Goode, and its complete brochure.

In the salubrious surroundings of the Portuguese Ambassador’s Private Residence the cream of the UK’s wine trade and press met to indulge in a tasting of Jamie Goode’s 50 Great Portuguese wines. As the winner of last year’s Portuguese Journalist of the Year Jamie was invited to choose the wines for this iconic tasting which has become a real show-case event for some of the top wines of Portugal. ‘Choosing just 40 great wines has been a difficult job, and I think Portugal is now one of the most exciting and dynamic wine-producing countries in Europe” said Jamie. He also praised ViniPortugal for all the work they put in to helping him over the past 12 months and for the excellent support they give to the trade in the UK. (read more comments on Jamie’s blog at http://www.wineanorak.com/blog/index.htm)

TWO REPEAT PERFORMANCES

Don’t worry if you missed this tasting there are 2 more opportunities to taste this incredible selection of 50 Great Portuguese Wines on the 28^th April in Manchester (Lowry Hotel) and on the 30^th April in Edinburgh (Balmoral Hotel). For an invitation and further information contact ViniPortugal on 01829 720130 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

AWARDS EVENING

In the evening, the Annual Portuguese Wine Awards were presented at a dinner hosted by the Ambassador of Portugal, ViniPortugal and APWI (the Association of Portuguese Wine Importers). The results of which were:

MAJOR GROUP

Winner: Laithwaites (Anne Forrest and Tony Laithwaite were absolutely thrilled to receive the prize “Thank you once again for our lovely award last night. It means a lot to us as a company and to me personally. Our new Portuguese catalogue launches tomorrow so this award will give our sales people an extra reason to talk about Portugal to our customers. Great timing! Tony wrote a nice piece about the awards for his blog on our website on the way home last night and we’re now going to do a special feature on the website as well to celebrate the good news.” Anne Forrest See more at http://laithwaites.blogspot.com/2009/01/wine-education-and-portuguese-glory.

Runner Up: The Wine Society (Jo Locke)

RESTAURANT AWARD

Winner: Eyre Bros: Stephen Chesterfield

Runner Up: Vinoteca: Charlie Young and Brett Woonton

INDEPENDENT RETAILER

Winner: Halifax Wine Company (Andy Petterson)

Runner Up: Cambridge Wine Merchants (Hal Wilson and Rebecca Dansie)

Hal and I had such a good evening at the Ambassadors residence last night - a great event. We (and the rest of the team) are so pleased to have received the runner up prize for the Independent category, it is wonderful to be recognised - we have been working really hard to acheive things like this and now feel positive that it CAN happen. Rebecca Dansie, Cambridge Wine Merchants

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

Winner: Sarah Ahmed (who had accepted the challenge/honour to choose the wines for next year’s 50 Great Portuguese Wines Tasting

Joint runners up: Kathryn McWhirter and Charles Metcalfe

Attached: photograph of the winners and runners up at the Awards evening

Judy Kendrick in ViniPortugal’s UK office:

e: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it t: 01829 720130

To contact ViniPortugal please contact:

Ana Sofia Oliveira: e: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it