It all began in the restaurant business from the age of 26. Straight out of culinary school, and then earning a Hotel & Restaurant Management degree which landed me an excellent job in NYC. I was Back-of-House Manager at The Water Club. A sophisticated eatery where high rollers of New York came to dine, knowing their celebrity would be protected in the early 1980’s.
It was there that I had my first Port; love at first sip! We had the first Cruvinet system in NYC and 1963 Sandeman Vintage Port was on tap at $15, for a generous pour. At 20 years young, this Sandeman was incredibly fruit filled and complex. Each bottle from the two cases the Somm was brilliant enough to buy, he would come to my office just prior to decanting. He’d allow me to have a sip, through cheesecloth, the remnants of what had just been decanted for sediment, and then immediately poured back into the bottle. This is how I came to fall in love with Port wine!
Over the next eleven years, I read every one of the dozens of books I could find on Port, written in the English language. My collection of Vintage Ports grew slowly in those early days, as most of my money was saved for a trip to Portugal. It finally happened in May 1994, something I had been waiting for, for many years. Bartholomew Broadbent, a member of the Confraria and son of the famous Michael, was the man who arranged many details of my first ever trip to Europe.
I spent a week in Lisboa and Setubal, followed by a week in Porto and Gaia, then another upriver in the Douro … an adventure I’ve never forgotten. My visit to the Factory House and meeting the “Masters of the Port Universe” was a highlight. Taking the train upriver in 3rd class with my girlfriend, we literally were surrounded by goats and sheep swarming throughout our railroad car. Windows opened from the waist up and leaning out and photographing the steam engine and then — my first glimpse of the Douro vineyards, a moment I will remember to my dying day. It was the time of my life. So many experiences that would be impossible to replicate in today’s modern version of what is still the most incredible wine region in the world!
Returning home to America, I began writing about my experiences and was posting on the old America Online wine message boards. People enjoyed my tasting notes and stories relayed about Port and Portugal. After several years, I became “the Port guy.” My Port and Madeira articles were published on a competing website, (Wine Lover’s Page) and after a while, I had a small following. In May of 2003, I hosted a big weekend-long Port event for some of the biggest Port lovers in America, plus guests from Portugal and the UK, including Richard Mayson, the Broadbent family, Jorge Serodio Borges, Jorge Moreira and the word spread. Coincidentally, a month later, my wife and I headed to Porto with our infant daughter Taylor, as earlier in the year, I was invited to become a Cavaleiro, (Knight) in the Confraria do Vinho do Porto.
I returned to Porto to stand before the Chanceler of the Confraria, Vito Olazabal and the Almoxarife, George Sandeman. Walking up to the dais, I was so proud and nervous, my wife was to video me and unknowingly sat in the front row next to Portugal’s President Jorge Sampaio. I didn’t even notice there was a red carpet and walked from my last row seat on a diagonal to the dais, as the audience let out a brief but audible laugh, during this most serious, if not solemn enthronement ceremony. Fortunately, I did not even realize what I had done nor why the crowd had laughed, until I saw the video back at home.
I took my oath to the Port Wine Brotherhood so seriously, that I left the restaurant business and began writing a newsletter eight months later, For The Love Of Port. A year later came my website of the same name, developed along with Stewart Todd. By 2005, along with my close friend Mario Ferreira from Alcobaça, I started one of the early tour companies, that brought enotourism to Porto, Gaia and the Douro. Nowadays, we bring our guests to 12 of Portugal’s 14 wine regions, having hosted nearly 50 tours.
In 2016, I was “promoted” to Infancão by the Confraria, and in 2018 the FTLOP website was enthronized as the first, “non-human entity” inducted into the Port Wine Brotherhood. My next newsletter will be the 110th and my love for Port continues strong to this day. In fact, my oath to the Confraria do Vinho do Porto has impacted my life in such a way, that I will finally realize my dream, by continuing my life’s work, and making Porto my permanent residence, in mid-2022.