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Discover Portovino.ch, an exclusive online shop for wine and Port wine from Portugal. When passion about such a noble activity as wine is shared, the result is outstanding. LuxuryActivist got an exclusive interview with Rico Brecht, founder of Portovino.ch.

Portovino_logo

Europe has a tremendous history in wine. The French, the Italian and the Spanish wine cultures have spread all around the world. Another important country for wine is Portugal. Worldwide know for its Port wine, Portugal also gathers a collection of amazing red and white wines that are unique. This uniqueness comes not only because of the special climate of the country but also from the passion that entire families put in their vineyard from generation to generation. They are true treasures that today portovino.ch are happy to share with customers all over Switzerland.

Rico_Brecht

The first minutes with Rico Brecht are quite striking and reveals immediately his motivation and for what does he stands for: pure passion. Mr Brecht has an interesting career in Retail and in parallel of his professional life he developed year by year his passion for wine. He discovers wine at the age of 19. He initiates his parcour and starts with the French wine and Chateau-Neuf-du-Pape. A real amazing love story. Step by step, Mr Brecht discover the italian and the spanish wine and his career brings him in 2005 to work in Portugal for 3 years. While living there he discovered the portuguese wine and the port wine. He attended to several training and succeeded the prestigious title of Cavaleiro in 2006.

Rico_Brecht_cavaleiro

After his return to Switzerland, he was convinced that he had a role to play in the valorization of Portuguese wines and that is why he launched in August 2012 portovino.ch. In his online wine shop, he proposes rare Portuguese brands in which he dedicates a personal relationship with the wine producers.

Word of mouth, exclusive selection of wines and wine tasting sessions are the strong advantages on Portovino business. Mr Brecht himself can come to your home or office to propose a special wine tasting session. Do not hesitate to contact him. When it comes to understand how the birth of Portovino happened, we get to understand that the wine business is a daily adventure. Every bottle, every vineyard, every year reveals their list of surprises and that is exactly what makes it so passionate.

The most important thing is the quality of the wines“.

This very exclusive wine shop is dedicated to the passion of wine, in the great tradition of Portuguese wine and Port wine producers. Portovino displays more than 10 exclusive wine references that you will not find else where in Switzerland.

  • 2 White wines
  • 1 Rose wine
  • 5 Red wines
  • 1 White Port wine
  • 3 Red Port wines
  • 1 Vintage Port wine

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Behind these amazing creations, 3 great wine producers:

  • Quinta da Falorca
  • Torre do Frade
  • Alves de Sousa (for Port wine)
quinta-da-falorca
Quinta da Falorca – Dâo
Torre_do_Frade
Torre do Frade – Alentejo

What do they have in common? The pleasure and the passion of doing things in the right way. Their secular know-how transmitted from one generation to another brings Portuguese wine as a state of art. When we ask to Mr Brecht how does he choose the different wines that he proposes, the answer is as simple as strong. He chooses established wine families who focus on quality and on the respect of traditions. Every great Family has an amazing story to tell and they are proud to do things right and give the time to nature and to human know-how.

I know the producers personally and I stand behind all the wines I sell

Rico Brecht impressive knowledge about Portugal and the wine business makes of portovino.ch the swiss expert on Portuguese wine culture. You need to visit the blog section in the website that gives a lot of insights on Portuguese wine culture. Mr Brecht goes at least 2 twice a year to Portugal in order to visit the producers, discover new wines and eventually make new partnerships. And from what we can read on the blog, they all have a very close relationship based on common respect, passion and the strong aim to spread the wine culture to the rest of the world.

Here is what Mr Mario Rui Ferreira, from Quinta da Falorca, says about the relationship with portovino.ch:

We are very excited that our wines are finally present and available in the Swiss market, after we started a new partnership with our friend Rico Brecht that after living and working in the wine industry in Portugal for several years, knows everything about Portuguese wines, their different varieties and exclusivity.  We became friends, and are very proud that his company Portovino represents our wines.” – Mario Rui Ferreira.

Quinta_do_Vesuvio
Quinta do Vesuvio – Douro

We can learn a lot of things on the Portovino blog. Harvests, tasting sessions and amazing regions of Portugal you need to visit before you die! You can check the blog here:
http://www.portovino.ch/blog  

Portugal has more than 500 varieties of grapes. Some of them have more than 100 years. This makes the Portuguese wine different from the others: Strong, fruitful and well balanced.

So, as Christmas is coming and definitely we will all need desperately a nice bottle of wine for the Christmas diner, we took the opportunity to have an expert to ask for the perfect recommendation. And here are the results. According to Mr Brecht, in Europe we have now winter time. It is cold outside, food gets richer than in summer and we taste the marvelous specialties from the kitchen. So the best recommendation would be a strong wine that would fit into the perfect alliance to your cooking.

#1 – Torre do Frade Reserva 2006

#2 – Quinta da Falorca Touriga Nacional
Quinta_da_Falorca_Touriga_nacional

 

#3 – Alves de Sousa, Quinta da Gaivosa 10 years
Quinta da Gaivosa

So after this you need to visit portovino.ch and enjoy a perfect dinner.
LA

 

Info sourced at exclusive luxuryactivist interview, winewomantravel.wordpress.com, representacoesfronteira.blogspot.ch and the company website. All content is copyrighted with no reproduction rights available.