Make is slick, make it profitable

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve experienced two very different approaches to what is effectively the same thing

A sales pitch from a booze company.

In Porto the Port wine lodges run regular tours, In Jerez the Sherry Bodegas do exactly the same thing.

In Porto the tours are a 30 minute wander through the cellars with a brief explanation on the making of port and the difference between a Ruby, White, Tawny, Vintage and LBV, followed by a couple of samples

In Jerez the tours are about 90 minutes long, include wandering around lots of storage areas, a film presentation and then a couple of samples.

In Porto the tours are free, in Jerez the basic tour is almost €10, and if you add in extra Sherry sampling and Tapas at the end it goes up to almost €20.

The numbers on the tours were pretty similar, which would suggest that either the Bodegas owners of Jerez are running a very profitable monopoly, or the Port wine lodge owners of Porto are seriously missing out on a trick.

Of course, the major difference is the Porto tours are definitely a very quick tour round as the visitors are basically after the booze. In Jerez the tour is very much part of the attraction.

Which proves a point, if you make it that little bit slicker, you can charge through the nose for it.

Once they get their hooks into you…

I’m not a religious person. I used to be, I used to go to Church every Sunday, but, apart from Funerals, it’s been more than 15 years since I last went to Mass.

Which is why I found it slightly disconcerting this morning that, in spite of not having been to mass for so long, and it being in a completely different language, within a couple of seconds of walking into the Cathedral I could tell that they were coming to the very end of the service with the closing prayers.

Sure enough 30 seconds later the priest was exiting the sanctuary and the handful of Saturday morning worshipers were leaving.

This leads to an interesting query as to where the borders are between faith, indoctrination and brain washing!

A fix for the Portuguese Economy

The Economists have been gleefully predicting that Portugal will be the next major economy to collapse under its own debt, following on the heels of Greece and Ireland.

However, I think I may have found a solution which will prevent the Portuguese Economy from imploding.

It’s a simple economic solution – diversification.

The Portuguese need to get away from what appears to be their major trade

Shoes.

Everywhere I looked today there were shoe shops. In some areas there where nothing but shoe shops, and at the current rate I think almost half of all the shops I’ve seen were selling shoes.

So perhaps the Portuguese economy can be saved, just at the expense of some loafers and a pair of brogues.

RDA+

I’ve just had a very pleasant meal in a little restaurant down in the Ribeira area of Porto, overlooking the Douro and the Port houses in Gaia.

One thing struck me though about the food, and it’s something I’ve noticed before in Lisbon (but only one or twice and not to this extent), was the slight addition of salt to the cooking.

Actually, slight is a bit of an understatement. When it came to the vegetables the main flavour was salt with the hint of vegetable matter underneath.

The Salmon was again very nice, but the skin had been pretty much encased in salt which had then leached into the fish.

Not that I’m complaining, the food was very nice, very well presented and exceptionally good value. It’s just a little concerning that I’m probably getting my weekly allocation of salt in one hit, it can’t be that good for you.