Wine as a Tradition

Portugal is located on the North Atlantic coast but it is Mediterranean in tradition and climate. It is one of the most important European wine producers.
A lot of Portuguese wines are exported and their quality is internationally known, like for example Port wine. In Autumn people pick the grapes. In districts like Douro hundreds of people are hired to pick grapes in every field and slope. However, all over the country producers of small fields grow their vines and when the grapes are ripe they bring their family and friends together and everybody goes into the fields to pick grapes.
Nowadays this tradition is no longer as it used to be but in some places, like in Minho, in the North region of the country, there are still people keeping up the custom.
Mainly old people have containers and other instruments to prepare the wine. After people have picked the grapes, they are put in something like a special container and there they will ferment or, if there are many grapes, men and women crush them with their feet. The result is wine for all the family and friends for one year.
Will this tradition disappear? Will young people keep up the costume? I really don’t think so.

A woman picking grapes

A family vineyard

Barcelos: A council with deep roots in the past

Barcelos is the council with the largest number of villages in Portugal: 89. However, in most of them, traditional agriculture is still an important economic activity. For some farmers it is not only about subsisting but the delight that working the land gives them.Peeling the leaves off the cob is a traditional farming activity. The neighbours meet on a large threshing floor where they peel the leaves off the cobs of the corn that they have cultivated. After that process has been completed, the men beat the cobs to strip the corn grains off the cobs, while the women sweep the scattered grains and pick it up into containers. Throughout all this process, they sing, dance, tell stories and also gossip… There is a funny custom in this operation: the young man or woman who peels the leaves off the red corn cob can kiss every single girl or boy in there. In the end they all have a common meal with roasted corn, home-made cakes and grills.The modern-day recovery of the traditional stripping process is a good idea for the people who want to keep the past alive.

Red corn cobs

Women stripping the corn off the cobs

The final product

The community meal

Everybody joins the traditional spirit

Text and photos by Flávia Martins (Portugal)

Paços dos Condes de Barcelos – The Palace of the Earls of Barcelos

This gothic style palace, now in ruins, was built in the 15th century by order of the Earl D. Afonso in the city of Barcelos.
There was a time when this construction was the richest and most valuable in the city, although, because of the Earthquake that happened in 1755 in Lisbon (capital of Portugal), a great part of the building, mostly the towers, was damaged. In 1872, the council of Barcelos ordered the pulling down of what was left of it. But, because of the citizens’ protests, that demolition was never finished.
However, it’s not possible to see the real beauty of this palace now, according to the older population.
This Piety was classified as a National Monument in 1910 and, nowadays, it hosts the Archaeological Museum of Barcelos.

What's left of the Paços dos Condes

View of the city from the palace