Press Trip, Port & The Past

Happy New Year, all, and what better way to celebrate it that to take a look at something that happened 13 years ago?

Back then, I was working as a staff writer (OK, the staff writer) on a now-deceased title called Hotel & Restaurant. And, because the editor’s wife had recently given birth, I got to go on a press trip to Portugal instead of him. The trip was arranged by Fiona Beckett, who was a PR back then, and was to Quinta do Noval, a port quinta high in the Duro Valley run by an Englishman, Christian Seely.

I got round to scanning the best of the shots I took there earlier this week, and I couldn’t help but think how wonderful that trip would be today. With the ability to blog the trip, from the riverside offices in Porto, to the grape harvesting up in the Duro, it would have made a fascinating three or four days of blogging. Instead, it lead to a single page in the magazine and three dozen slides which have sat unviewed until this week.

Enjoy this little glimpse of press trips past: