{"id":1846,"date":"2013-12-27T12:18:02","date_gmt":"2013-12-27T12:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/?p=1846"},"modified":"2013-12-27T12:20:24","modified_gmt":"2013-12-27T12:20:24","slug":"christmas-shopping-in-the-vineyard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/?p=1846","title":{"rendered":"Christmas shopping in the Vineyard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/27\/christmas-shopping-in-the-vineyard\/portugal-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1849\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/WSJ_grapes_JAlden0057-420x279.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Portugal.\" width=\"420\" height=\"279\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1849\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nPort always makes me think of Christmas. It brings back memories of my Dad\u2019s annual glass whilst watching <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/\">Laurence of Arabia<\/a> on TV for the umpteenth time. I never really understood the journey that the drink took to our table and knew even less of the tradition and importance it holds for the people who make it.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nDuring this years harvest in September, I accompanied writer <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Will_Lyons\">Will Lyons<\/a> to the Douro Valley, in Portugal to both photograph and make a video for <a href=\"http:\/\/uk.wsj.com\/\">The Wall Street Journal<\/a>. Watch the video below.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" src=\"http:\/\/live.wsj.com\/public\/page\/embed-3B7F8857_C2AC_426F_8BE1_D66A847B5249.html\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nRiding in on a gorgeous train ride from Porto our stop in Vesuvio was remote but that made it all the more special. High in the Valley local families come together just like we do at Xmas for a their annual harvest in a tradition that has lasted generations. Starting early on the steep terraces they methodically work collecting the grapes.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/27\/christmas-shopping-in-the-vineyard\/portugal-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1848\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/WSJ_grapes_JAlden0017-420x279.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Portugal.\" width=\"420\" height=\"279\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1848\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nAfter the harvest, the grapes are put in large stone tanks called \u201clagares\u201d where the workers use their feet to squash them to release the liquid that will eventually produce wine. While some tread the grapes,\u00a0others sing along to the accordion. The night that I attended with Will was particularly raucous; FC Porto had won in the Champions League which added to the atmosphere.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/index.php\/2013\/12\/27\/christmas-shopping-in-the-vineyard\/portugal-4\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1850\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/WSJ_grapes_JAlden0024-420x279.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Portugal.\" width=\"420\" height=\"279\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-1850\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nAt the airport, whilst rushing through duty free a bottle of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.grahams-port.com\/\">Grahams port wine<\/a> made it\u2019s way into my luggage. The bottle is now waiting for my parents arrival at Chez Jason this Christmas, following in the footsteps of my father and literally in the footsteps of the people who made it we\u2019ll enjoy it over a game of Monopoly.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIt was a real pleasure working with Will on this; I leant allot from the best in the business. Read his piece here.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Port always makes me think of Christmas. It brings back memories of my Dad\u2019s annual glass whilst watching Laurence of Arabia on TV for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1846"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1875,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions\/1875"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonalden.com\/site\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}