This week’s guest is another fascinating individual that I hoped would be a guest before I even launched the podcast!

Tony Smith and I met in 2012 when we were classmates at the Culinary Institute of America’s Wine Program in the Napa Valley. He and his parter had just purchased a very historic Winery in Portugal and he was in the program to prep him for winery ownership and production.

I was lucky enough to visit the stunning Covela property in 2016 and I knew it was a special the place the moment we drove in.

We dive into:

• The roller coaster of buying and restoring a winery property that dates back to the 1500’s
• Acquiring the coveted Organic certification and what that means (compared to Biodynamic)
• Does glassware matter?
• Can you taste minerality from the soil in the wine?
• A surprising natural winemaking technique they are using that I've never heard of before
• Our "Sip Spotlight" tasting of 3 of his unique and gorgeous wines made from the rare Avesso grape

Check out how they are blazing the trail in Portugal with their recent international certification for Regenerative Viticulture, which is new and highly regarded.

You can see footage of the beautiful property and purchase Covela wines for shipping to the US (and other countries) here:

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Questions, suggestions and guest requests? nikki@sipwithnikki.com