Thanks to Christian Seely and Marie-Louise Schÿler of Château Pichon-Longueville in Pauillac, their guests enjoyed a wonderful Portuguese evening during Vinexpo. Château Pichon-Longueville belongs to Axa Millesimes Group that owns also vineyards in Portugal as well as other vineyards in France and Hungary. When Christian Seely traveled to Portugal 18 years ago, he fell in love with the Douro region and its wines.  That’s why this Classified Growth welcomed 26 vineyards from Douro for an elegant and very interesting tasting in the chateau chais.

After the tasting of the red wines, the guests went back to the park where white and rosé Portuguese wines as well as cod (steamed, smoked, carpaccio – whatever you liked) and various hams awaited them.  The dinner was then served under a tent in the park: a goat casserole, broad beans, new potatoes and mushrooms in a pultry sauce; almond tart and “Queilo da Serra da Estrela” cheese won the heart of the guests. Of course, red wines from Douro, Quinta do Noval Colheita 1997 and various ports from the Douro producers were served on each table. What about Pichon-Longueville wines? Forget them: for a few hours, we were in Portugal!

The evening was a great success. At first a little surprised by this “Douro Evening”, guests became enchanted by the event. They did not learn anything about the history or the wines of Château Pichon-Longueville but they will remember the most original gala evening in Bordeaux of this 2011 ediiton of Vinexpo. Is not it the best marketing strategy? Kudos to Christian Seely, Marie-Louise Schÿler and the great team of the chateau for an unforgettable evening!

The IPAM Marketing School in Porto, Portugal, kindly invited me to be a speaker at their conference on Wine Marketing on April 28-29. I’ll speak on “New technologies and Innovation, success strategies for wine brands”.  It will give the opportunity to visit some Douro wineries and visit the port wineries in Porto. I look forward to the event.