making wine and Their Voice Portugal

On Wednesday, when I was in Portugal, a good friend of mine, Annelie, came to visit. Annelie and Hasse live in Tomar and we met after I´ve been reading her blog about moving to Portugal last year Annelie´s blog

They live in Tomar with their four dogs, a donkey and run a small B&B. It is just one apartment but it is lovely.

It was wonderful to see Annelie again. We have only met a few times but get along so well anyway. Annelie took me to a place near by the farm called Their Voice. They help horses and donkeys in terrible conditions. It can be perfectly healthy horses going to slaughter or horses and donkeys near death from starvation, malnutrition or just dehydrated. It is run by a wonderful woman Sharon Clarke who is putting in all her time and energy trying to save as many horses and donkeys possible from terrible suffering and deaths.

To see all these horses and the blind donkey Chloé, made me very sad. Maybe it is because it  is hard to be reminded how cruel people can be.

The rest of the week I learned some more about making wine

the grapes are separated from stems, leaves and are crushed

We didn´t really get the hang of it but you can see how long the grapes stay in the barrels before the pressing. It was something about the colour

you have to press down the fermenting grapes twice a day

happy girl making wine

disgustingly happy

Anders helped out

so did mats

The grapes stay in the barrels for 7-10 days before pressing and put in to steel containers.

It was a wonderful journey and I can´t wait until I go back again

Åse