By the time you read this, the “Good Morning Portugal! Wine Club” will have met for its March session, tasting and discussing a Portuguese wine (or wines), online, as it’s been doing since the Covid lockdown era.

From that time on, as a weekly relief from social distancing rather than the current monthly schedule, the GMP! ‘Wine Ninjas’, as we call ourselves, have tasted close on a hundred wines, which we call “rigorous research and attention to detail” where others say “booze-up”!

What began as a way of staying sane, if not sober, and was merely fun and not in any way snooty, has become an institution among a small band of merry foreigners who have developed a devoted affection for Portuguese wine and its culture of growing, production and presentation.

No longer merely a wine club, one might say it’s now a borderline cult of appreciation, which goes way beyond just wine tasting into the realms of more general Portuguese cultural understanding and social education.

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As elections approach worldwide, do you, like me, feel that so-called civilisation is in need of some new tactics in the face of continued conflict, contraction and communication breakdown?

You know me, hopefully, as something of a cheerful soul, with a generally positive view of life. But we all have our soul- and sanity-searching moments, and I doubt I am alone in being a little more reflective and concerned about humanity at this volatile point in our collective history.

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What goes on in your mind when I say “driving in Portugal”?

Are you thinking about the ‘unique’ driving style of this country, which some imagine might make it one of the most dangerous in Europe?

Do terrifying thoughts of how to exchange your driving licence, and how long you may have to wait as a foreigner, flood into your head?

Or, are you more preoccupied with how hard it can be to even get hold of a car in the first place, in the land of expensive old bangers and the most relaxed car salesmen in the world?

On the first point, the latest research by vignetteswitzerland.com, who analysed the latest data from the European Transport Safety Council, suggests that Romania is the most vehicularly lethal with 85.81 deaths per million inhabitants. Portugal actually ranks fifth with 62.30 road deaths per million, an 8.53% drop from the 2012 data.

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