With a full room, the members of Tertúlia “Por Viseu” watched the presentation of the Vale da Estrela Dairy made by Jorge Coelho. The institutional video was also released.

The meeting took place at the Zambeze restaurant, in Lisbon, this Wednesday, and Jorge Coelho revealed the motivations that led him to develop Vale da Estrela Dairy and the aim of contributing to the development of the region.

On the other hand, it focused on training people, giving importance to the activity of cheesemakers and to the fact that almost all of them was unemployed and accepting this new challenge with determination.

It was also revealed that the Vale da Estrela PDO cheese had a very positive reception at the dinner commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Portuguese Academy of Gastronomy, which took place at the end of November and was attended by Portuguese and foreign gastronomes.

Jorge Coelho also thanked Eduardo Pinto for the invitation made to him by Tertúlia “Por Viseu” and offered him a replica of the church of Sto. António dos Cabaços, located near the Dairy, in Mangualde and who is also the patron saint of shepherds.

The  institutional video was projected (in a room with two film directors) and was much applauded.

Then the winemaker Vergílio Loureiro presented a thesis on how to consume cheese and wine. According to him, it is best to drink white wine (for example from Dão) with Serra da Estrela cheese because this quality of wine does not overwhelm the taste of the cheese. On the contrary, it even enhances its flavor. Contrary to what is common with red wine.

In an interesting speech, Vergílio Loureiro also said that cheese and wine “are a hymn to human intelligence” because they result from easily perishable products, but man has managed to transform them into products that last much longer. The cheese would have been produced much earlier, but the wine’s claim was superior. Finally, he praised the quality of the Vale da Estrela PDOP cheese and the cottage cheese, which were part of the dinner menu.