A MAGICAL evening of music, wine and food, organised by the Algarve Wine Society’s vice-president Michael Berger, in conjunction with the Cortes de Cima winery, was held recently at the Pine Cliffs Sheraton Hotel.
By popular demand, the well-known artists from Copenhagen, Ulla Kudsk Jensen, mezzo-soprano, Jesper Buhl, baritone, and Mats Knutsson, piano, returned to Portugal for the second year running to entertain in their own inimitable way. Unlike so many opera singers with beautiful voices but little or no acting ability, Ulla and Jesper combine both qualities and really make their music come alive.
The first part of the programme was a celebration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s birth, with a selection of arias from Figaro, Cosi fan Tutte and The Magic Flute. The second half included songs from contemporary musicals and operettas. By the end of the concert, hardly an eye was left dry and certainly no heart left untouched by the beautiful music.
During the interval, Algarve Wine Society members and their guests were privileged to taste the entire range of the famous Cortes de Cima wines from the Alentejo, ably presented by Norman Tucker and Fred Reynolds. The most popular of the wines tasted were the Cortes de Cima 2002, a blend of five different grape varieties, and the Chaminé 2003, a blend of Aragones, Syrah and Touriga Nacional.
After the concert, a magnificent dinner was served in the St. Gabriel Ballroom of the Sheraton. It had been hoped to dine al fresco on the Sunset Deck, overlooking the ocean, but sometimes the forecasters can get it wrong, even in the Algarve! Spirits inside the ballroom were definitely not dampened by the drizzle outside.
The next event on the Algarve Wine Society’s schedule, leading into the traditional summer break, will be the annual summer party on July 2 in the clubhouse of Alto Golf. Anyone interested in more information about, or membership of, the Algarve Wine Society, should contact the secretary, Larry Hampton, on e-mail [email protected] Contributed
