Original subtitles

So, basically, what we've gotta do

is we've got to skip forward now on the schedule.

Okay, we've got to skip forward and just go straight to Valencia

so we don't miss the rest of the shoot schedule,

and we got a dinner planned tonight,

different things, so.

All right, I'm gonna... Are you staying in, Ed?

No, you're probably leaving, right?

Let's shut it off.

Edwin Brochin: I can't remember my first taste of wine,

but I'll never forget the moment I experienced

really good wine.

One sip of the deep crimson elixir

made time stand still.

With flavors unfolding on my palate

like a symphony, the moment wasn't really

about the taste, but an awakening of my senses.

I guess that's when I first realized that

wine was more than something we drink.

Instead, it's something we discover.

My life's been a story of passion,

hard work, and competition.

Call it a curse or a blessing, I've always been driven

to be at the top of my game.

So, it was only fitting that along with my business partner,

Dr. Chris Burns, would embark on a venture

that aimed for nothing short of excellence.

Our passion for identifying the best wines

was not just a quest for perfection,

but a testament to our belief that wine

has the power to transcend time and space,

offering an extraordinary sensory experience

to those who are fortunate enough

to enjoy it.

Welcome to the beautiful city

of Valencia, Spain, where we're gonna enjoy

some of the most exquisite Spanish cuisine

and paired along with some of the finest wine

in the world.

Here we are in beautiful Valencia, Spain,

city of 100 bell towers, where winemaking dates back

over 1,000 years.

After a quick visit to the heart of Valencia,

we headed to Alicante and made a quick stop

for some breakfast.

What we're having here right now

is a traditional breakfast.

Starts off with peanuts and olives,

and they bring you out the local favorite grape,

which just happens to be a merseguera,

a local merseguera.

It's delicious.

Welcome to Alto Turia, the highest point of elevation

in the Valencia province where severe winters

and mild summers are the perfect combination

for growing amazing grapes.

Behind this picturesque facade is home to

one of the most underrated white grapes,

the little known merseguera.

Gregorio Gomez: My name is Gregorio Gomez.

I make wine of artisan characteristics,

and out of our small winery we create the Falconer 2

exclusively for the United States.

These vineyards are very special,

they are ancient vines,

they're old vines from the region of Alto Turia.

Which is a region with unique, special

climate characteristics and with a unique soil compound

which is unique to this vineyard.

Look at this soil, buddy.

Chris Burns: Sandstone.

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?

No.

Finally here.

I mean, it's just a dream come true.

And look at these grapes coming out.

They're beautiful.

So, now you know where we get the blood of the ancient vine

right there, right?

For years I have dreamt about making this journey.

And now, here today, I have felt the soil,

tasted the water from the well, and gazed upon

the beauty of the land.

This is another example of the influence

of the environment.

These herbs grow naturally here.

There's rosemary, there's thyme, there's manzanilla.

So, this also helps to affect the flavor of the wine.

You know, just walking around the vineyard

just fills the air with the wonderful smell

of natural herbs and perfumes, and that translates over

to the flavors of the wines.

It's a wonderful thing.

For centuries these wines have been enjoyed

by those with the most regal of tastes

and were said to be enjoyed right here in 1492

at the marriage of Queen Isabel de Castile

and Ferdinand of Arragon.

Now we are arriving

to Falconer Sport of Kings Vineyard

in Villa Del Prado just outside of Madrid.

I'm here at the vineyard in Villa Del Prado

that grows some of the finest grapes in the world

that is responsible for some of the finest wine

in the world.

And I am standing at the highest elevation

here in this ranch so that we can get

a beautiful view all the way to Madrid

and all the way across the valley,

and even the vineyards can be seen from here.

After a tour of the vineyard,

we headed to the winery.

It was impressive, to say the least.

We were given a complete tour

on the entire process on how they make

the Falconer Sport of Kings wine.

Afterwards, we were all seated

for an amazing food and wine experience.

The main course was slow roasted lamb

and fried potatoes, a local favorite

that paired extremely well with the Falconer wines.

A short celebration leads us to the next phase

of our mission: to locate and procure

Spain's hidden gems.

Pedro Alvarez: The variety, Cornicabra,

olive oil that we made, and the one that

you are tasting now is from this olive grove.

So, this is the first olive trees that we harvest each year,

and this year it was the first that we make serie,

with the bottles numbered.

So, we only made 100 bottles, and this is the last that

we have from the first day of harvest.

This is the 71, 71.

So, this is the last that we have,

and we are trying to... We're tasting it now.

Then, past about two weeks that...

From the beginning of the harvest,

we harvest the rest of our olive groves

and we make a coupage, a mixture.

Also, taking care of the optimal combination

of its olive varieties to make up a flavor,

to obtain the flavor that we are looking for.

So, we have at one part the monovarietal olive oils

that are three and is a very short amount of it,

like, 2,000 liters of it.

This year we make that first day of harvest

and that was only 100 bottles, so 50 liters.

And then, we make a more numerous amount

of olive oil that... from a mixture of varieties.

This is an incredible experience, man.

To actually be here where you can touch the soil

and smell the soil,

and actually touch the vines and know...

It's different when we're back home,

just drinking it at the table, you know,

having and celebrating, "Wow, this is amazing."

But to be here and see where it comes from,

where it grows from, where you get

the minerality from the ground, this is

truly a unique experience, sir.

Thank you for coming and sharing it.

Yeah, so.

I wondered... I was hoping you'd make it,

you know, I wasn't sure with your schedule, but I...

You know, I was like, "We gotta go."

This was meant to be.

Well, thanks for coming with me, man.

I really appreciate it.

Yeah. What an experience, man.

Chris and I are searching for another hidden gem

to add to our collection, and I think

we may just have found it: Albillo Real.

Edwin Brochin.

Juan Manuel Bellver: How are you, Edwin?

It's a pleasure.

Really good to meet you, welcome.

We're very interested in your store here,

can you show us around a bit?

Of course.

Vamos.

Antonio Reguilon: Welcome to Madrid, the Spanish capital.

I am here to tell you that Madrid is not only the city,

it's the people, the traditions, the modernity too.

It's known that Madrid has wines.

We have wines that are hundreds of years old.

There were famous writers from the golden age of Spain,

Cervantes, that have spoke of the excellence

of the wines of Madrid.

In this case about the wines from the region of San Martin.

The apellation of origin is the only one in the world

that has the name of the capital of the country,

"Vinos de Madrid".

I would like to explain to you that the wines from Madrid,

they have a characteristic like none other.

Because we have an orography, in this region,

that can change dramatically with a few kilometers.

We have varieties of vines such as Garnacha,

cultivated at 500 meters in Aldea del Fresno

and within only 20 minutes

we find ourselves in a mountainous region

with a different climate, and different terrain,

and that same garnacha is completely different.

It makes it very interesting to come

to Madrid and taste our wines.

So, we've just gained access

to the Cava 14 wine locker where legendary wine labels

quietly rest.

It was such an honor to be able to see

such precious and rare wines,

some of them topping €70,000 per bottle,

like this 2000 Don Perignon rosé.

You know, people often ask me, you know,

"How did you get into the wine business?"

And I always tell them the same story.

I never really sought out to be in the wine business.

I'm just a filmmaker.

We just happened to be in Madrid for the making

of this documentary at a time that coincided

with the Madrid International Filmmaker Festival.

My wife and I made time to attend the award ceremony

and represent our film, "Falconer 2 the Untold Stories."

speaker 1: In style, guys. speaker 2: In style.

Finally, the day has come.

We get to sample some vintage Fondillón.

Upon arrival, we immediately got into the root of the process

and how this unique Fondillón is produced.

It's like the Wizard of Oz.

I like that door.

Rafael Poveda Bernabé: This is the...

These are the pioneers of the wine from Alicante,

in three centuries.

Three centuries.

So, what's happened is, is each one of the pioneers,

basically, from, yes, the patriarchs

have always conserved wine.

They didn't make it and sell it all.

So, they always kept wines and passed it down,

and then they would make wines and then pass that wine down,

and then they'd make wines and pass it down.

And here today they actually have wines

from the 1930s, which that's very impressive.

You know, I can't even imagine what that tastes like, right?

Oh, okay, okay.

We have arrived.

Hermosa.

Wow.

From the wines for Fondillón wines here,

a minimum of ten years of aging in here

before they will bottle them, and a minimum of 25 years

of total aging before they'll sell a bottle.

You cannot purchase a bottle that is less than 25 years old.

Now I want to invite you to leave your signature,

while there is good light, so that you can have

your signature here in the winery.

How do you say honor?

Honor.

, very honored.

Your turn, my friend.

Gracias.

Nice, nice.

Thank you very much.

Very good.

Now I am going to invite you

to sample the Fondillon.

Tasting downstairs.

En la sacristy.

Sacristy is the small cellar inside to the big cellar

where you store the more important,

more sacred wine.

The sacred wine.

We're gonna go down to the cellar

and we're going to sample some sacred wine.

Here we have... And you can film this,

the sacristy.

Little did I know that all of this sensory overload

is just merely an appetizer ahead of the main course

that is yet to come.

Here we are going to break the seal for us.

We're gonna bust the seal on this one

so we can sample some.

It's okay?

1944.

1944, what an honor.

Super.

When you say it is okay.

Ready.

What I have in my hands is called a "Venencia".

It is a tool to take out the wine.

An ancient tool.

It is an eternal, ancient technique.

An ancient tool to extract the wine

from the barrels.

Muchos gracias.

Salud.

Liquid gold right there.

Oh my gosh.

So when do we drink this wine?

When?

A wine so special, rare, extraordinary, different?

We drink it with dessert.

With the dessert.

So, when do you... when is it appropriate

to taste and sample such elegant and aged wine like this?

Special occasions and... But it's mostly served

with dessert.

Isabel Galindo: Well, the Albillo Real

is a beautiful variety

that nearly went extinct, that has an important history.

We are here in the region of San Martin de Valdeiglesias

which is the most central mountain range

where the sun is very hot.

The soil is full of granite and the grapes are small.

The Albillo Real, like the garnacha,

which is a native variety that

adapts very well to the climate and region.

They adapt very well, and they produce a caliber of grape.

Relative to the terrain and it's a very small grape

that isn't as good for eating as much as it is

for making wine.

It is high and bold in flavor, in comparison to other

Spanish white grapes.

These wines have a taste that is very smooth, well-rounded.

And gastronomic.

In Spain there are very few varieties of native origin,

that give us these type of wines.

Most of them are very acidic, wines to be served cold.

These are the opposite, and pair with any type of food.

Have you thought about how we're gonna handle this?

How do you want me to approach it?

So, here's the deal.

Wow, that's delicious.

We're looking for the hidden gem.

Oh, we got the hidden gem.

Yeah, I mean this Albillo Real grape was dead.

It's back. It's got a great story.

She resurrected it.

The wine is delicious. We've already had it.

She's getting ready to serve us some large...

Some that we haven't even had, right?

So, I'm just gonna flat out and just ask her,

"Hey, we're really interested in your wine.

How much do you have?"

What she thinks it would cost per bottle or, you know,

just give us an estimate, right?

Right? Is that it?

I'm ready. I'm good with it.

Let's do it.

This is our ticket.

Hello, look at this, what a beautiful presentation.

Welcome!

It's really beautiful here.

This is a precious paradise.

This place is incredible.

Cheers to Albillo Real.

She thinks maybe they're...

Now that the vineyard is in good shape

and they're producing quite a bit of wine

that it might be a good time to be able to consider

something like that.

After our formal presentation,

we were invited to tour the winery

where we had the opportunity to sample

some of the rest of her collection.

But I created a movie a long time ago called,

"Spirit of the Bull," and we submitted it

to some film festivals and it ended up in Madrid

at the International Film Festival there,

and there were some people there

that had bought tickets and were watching my film,

and they kind of fell in love with it

because it had a lot to do with Spanish culture,

and then afterwards they stuck around

to watch the awards night, and they saw that

the film had won three awards that night.

But afterwards they explained to me

they had a little story of their own,

and they asked me if I enjoyed wine.

I said, "Absolutely.

I enjoy fine wines and fine food."

So, they presented me with a bottle and...

Just a black bottle like this one,

and I asked what it was, and they said

it's a 2005 Tempranillo grape from Valtiendas,

north of Segovia.

And at the time I looked down in my pocket,

and I had a artwork from the Film Festival,

"Spirit of the Bull," and I just happened

to grab the bottle and I just kind of wrapped it

around like this, and I said...

I said, "Wow, that looks amazing."

I said, "That just looks like it belongs there."

Little by little, that's pretty much how

the conversation started.

Let's see the cave.

Alejandro Costa: It will surprise you.

Do we need a flashlight?

And see, this is what I told you before.

So, the stones here, the way they are...

Fit together.

This is pre-Roman, so it's... exactly.

So, we don't have, like... I don't know the word

in English, but, you know, like an arch.

We don't have the arch.

It's like...

And there's no mortar? Alejandro: No.

Nope, just the stones.

Yes, just the stones.

Impressive.

So, here is where we store our dressers.

Yeah, they are, like, selected bottles.

So, this is a bottle.

Each year, I select a bottle or...

Especially when the... When I think that that year

is something special.

And, yeah, this is the Spirit of the Bull 2017.

Yeah, very few bottles.

It's the perfect temperature

in here.

Yeah, the interesting thing

is that in the middle of Spain... so the weather

changes quite a lot between summer and winter,

but the temperature here is the same.

Maybe it can be, like, two degrees,

no more than that.

As a winemaker, I really think that two years here

make some kind of magic with wine.

Yes, it's fantastic.

We're honored to just be a part of it, sir.

Salud to...

Your father-in-law.

And the history behind it.

So, interesting story.

There's a phrase that comes to mind

when I hear that question.

It's a pursuit... pursuit of a dream.

It was kind of serendipitous, finding that.

I was playing golf with a buddy and he says, "Hey."

He says, "I got a friend who imports Spanish wine.

You want to try it?" "Yeah, sure."

So, he's describing the guy, and I thought, man,

that sounds familiar.

Let's think. I know this guy.

He says, "Well, what's his name?"

I say, "Well, it's Eddie Brochin."

"I know Eddie.

He taught my kid taekwondo 25 years ago.

My kid's a black belt now, and he's in special forces."

Said, "Yeah, I'd love to try his wine."

And so, got together with Eddie, you know, tried the wine,

and, you know, here we are in Segovia, Spain,

enjoying, I mean, some of the finest wine

I've ever tasted.

All right, so.

I mean, he's got 2014, 2017, 2019, and 2020 right?

That's available?

How about that 2005 hidden in the cave?

You're not getting a 2005, man.

We can ask him. Wanna ask him?

It doesn't hurt to ask, as long as you can handle

the answer.

As long as I can handle the answer.

Yeah, so, I mean...

We'll hit him up for the '05,

but let's wait until the end.

Let's wait till the end of the conversation,

hit him up for the 2005.

So, what do we want to... I know he...

I heard that he had 400 bottles, right, of the 2017.

You wanna hit him up for that?

I'm good. I mean, think about it.

This is the pursuit of a dream. What's it worth?

We need this wine.

We need at least some of the '14.

And we need to share...

And the rest of the '17, right?

We want to get all of his '17. Is that the plan?

I'm good with that. What do you think?

I don't wanna go without trying.

What you think, but...

Come on. Chris: Yeah, I'm in.

After some intense negotiation,

we decided it was time

to head out for lunch and celebrate.

speaker 3: Hello, are you Alejandro?

Yes, yes, I am he.

Speaker 3: We just wanted to introduce ourselves to you

and talk to you about the great

wines you're producing from Navaltallar.

Seriously?

Speaker 3: We are delighted because they told us

you were here.

We wanted to see you because of this wine.

Thank you so much. I would like to hug you.

Speaker 3: With this wine, there is no comparison,

it is excellent.

From the soil of Segovia.

Speaker 4: Competing with what's closer to the river

which is the most popular.

But the wine from our region is far superior.

Thank you so much.

Speaker 3: Thank you for this wine

that you are making. and for representing Segovia.

Thank you from us. See you later.

Hi, Lucio, thank you very much

for coming to eat with us.

Today's dessert is going to be this bottle of Sherry,

can you explain to us a little bit about it please?

Lucio del Campo: The reality of the philosophy behind Sherry

is it is an oxidative aging wine.

It is made in Moncloa, another region of Spain,

that has been produced over five generations.

The first bottle is from 1840.

It began as a dry wine, then it began to age

and the grape, looking for a sweet wine,

that was aged in barrels.

With wine makers that understand this wine,

because it is a complicated process,

to make sure the correct time passes to ferment the grapes.

I found myself working with different barrels,

and different flavor combinations.

It was a bit chaotic,

and what I did was play around like an alchemist,

like a kid playing the lottery.

I was enjoying making combinations

and then creating and aging in barrels.

To create the composition of this wine.

Now it is time for the last leg of our journey.

We must travel to Portugal for a complete history

on Iberian wines.

All right, so we're finally here

at the world-famous Domus Pacis Hotel

in Fatima, Portugal.

We've been dragging this luggage all the way since the bus stop.

So, we're finally here.

We're gonna go check in, see if we can get some rest

for tomorrow morning.

All right, let's go.

Carlos Evaristo: Edwin, I want to welcome you to Fatima,

the spiritual heart of the planet

and the central region of Portugal,

and it's also the heart of wine production, red wine.

It was here that it all started in 1445.

Well, thank you for having me.

It's an honor to be here. I appreciate it.

We're high atop

the Serra de Aire mountain range,

and it was here that the fourth Count of Ourém

decided it would be the best place

for him to plant the red grapes that he brought from France

and from Italy.

And what year was that?

Do you... do...

In 1445.

Oh, wow. Okay.

So, a lot of people don't know that

before 1445 there was no red wine

in Portugal.

Oh, okay. Interesting.

So, that's one of the secrets of Fatima.

Oh, fantastic.

Well, again, thanks for bringing me here.

Beautiful place here.

Very peaceful and just beautiful.

Well, let's show you around.

Thank you, sir.

We're outside of Castle Ourém,

and you said this is where the original barrels of wine

were brought up to the castle through this ancient road,

right up through here.

It's amazing.

Edwin, welcome to the Castle of Ourém,

and here, at the medieval restaurant,

is headquartered

the Royal Confraternity of Medieval Wine.

Now, let's have a seat here.

You can have a seat right here at the royal table,

and I'm gonna give you a little history lesson on wine.

How about that?

Well, the first thing, medieval wine really begins

under the Templar knights, and the Templar knights

were masters of this region.

They have their headquarters in Tomar

not too far away from here, and this castle was also

one of the Templar castles.

The Templars not only controlled all of the commerce

throughout all of Europe to the Holy Land,

they served as a banking institution,

whereas you could deposit your money

at one of the particular banks.

The bank is a very interesting word,

because it's just... it's a bench.

They sat at a bench in the marketplace,

and if you were a wine merchant

and you went to buy or sell your wine,

it was safer for you to go to a Templar bank,

because you would deposit your money at the bank

where you lived and then, on your journey

throughout Europe, you could withdraw

and make payments and they would take

a modest 10%.

I see.

And that was, of course, the downfall of them,

because the king of France wanted the whole banking system

so he could control it himself, and he had a few debts

to the bank as well, so.

But the interesting thing about the Templars

was they were very faith-oriented

in their wine drinking, and that meant that

they saw wine and bread and olive oil, olives,

as the three most sacred things in consumption possible,

and in the Mediterranean diet.

And that went back to the time of the Romans.

Most of the regional farmers here in Portugal,

in this area here, they cultivated wheat

to produce bread, olives to produce olive oil,

and grapes to produce wine.

The sacredness of the wine that we hold today

is the symbol of the blood.

And the symbol of the blood comes with the institution

of the Eucharist in the Last Supper.

So, Jesus himself took at the Last Supper

these three elements of wine, grapes, of wheat, bread,

and olives and olive oil.

And he did this in the Last Supper

because he turned the bread into his body,

he turned the wine into his blood,

and then he went and suffered his agony

in the Mount of Olives, Gethsemane.

So, by suffering this passion, by going through the Eucharist,

and then by being sacrificed on the cross,

Christ in symbolism and in fact

in the transubstantiation that the Catholics believe

made these elements sacred.

And so, in the Middle Ages, when you would, for example,

spill accidentally some wine, even though

it's not consecrated wine, because it reminded you

of the Last Supper, you would immediately

take some fine cloth and absorb it.

If you dropped some bread, you would pick it up

and you would kiss it.

And it was the reverence that was given

to the symbol of wine and bread because of the institution

and because of Christ.

So, the Templars, who protected the Temple of Jerusalem,

were the ones that were also, traditionally, the guardians

of the Holy Grail, and, of course, the Holy Grail,

which held the sacred wine at the Last Supper.

So, that was the cup of cups.

They also instituted something very interesting,

which is the mystical transfer of relics.

You could have an original relic and you could make a replica

of that relic almost equal, or maybe even coequal,

to the original by having a bit of the real relic

put into the other one, the essence.

So, the mystical transfer also was later transferred

into the wine.

And I remember you telling me that you went to a winery

where they had given you to sample

some 500 year old wine.

Yes, that's right. It's a Fondillón.

We got to sample a 1944 vintage, but it had 500 years of history.

So, in essence, we were drinking a 500 year old wine,

but it was bottled in 1944.

But basically, we got to drink from the actual cask

with a venencia, they call it venencia.

He dipped it in there with a bamboo venencia,

and he poured it in, and we all got the sample,

and he said there's 500 years of history.

And he explained to us that the enzymes from the original,

from 500 years ago, are still in this wine.

So, you're still drinking a 500 year old wine,

because he... every year they transfer 10%

off of this barrel to the new vintage,

and then the following year they transfer 10% back

to this new barrel of this new vintage,

and the lineage just continues until today.

So, it was a very special occasion

for us to be able to do that.

They allowed me to sign my name on the cask and, yeah.

Well, and that is a Templar tradition.

That is how the Templars transferred to their wine

the sacredness of the wine from the cup of the Last Supper.

They would take some wine, put it in...

They had put it in the last... in the goblet

of the Last Supper, the Holy Grail,

and then continue to transfer part of that wine

to the new wine that they produced

so that they became the guardians of the tradition

of the wine from the Holy Grail.

From the...

From the actual Holy Grail

that they kept, and it is today in Valencia, in Spain.

And that's why it's called a venencia.

We were invited there and inducted there.

Exactly.

Well, I'm gonna give you some of this wine,

and you're gonna tell me if it tastes that old.

Okay.

Wow.

Wow, it has a very good smell to it still.

Salud.

Wow.

Now you are officially a knight.

It still has alcohol.

It's amazing.

Very honored, sir. Thank you very much.

Delicious.

Well, let me show you around

and show you some of the artifacts

and tell you a little bit more about the history.

Sure, can I bring my goblet?

Absolutely, by all means.

All right.

So, as you know, I'm an archaeologist,

and these are some of the artifacts

that I've found here in the castle

over the last 30 years.

And you can see Templar headstones,

you can see some of the older headstones,

and these are from the castle that the count built,

his palace, in 1445, exactly at the same time

that he started producing red wine.

And it's very interesting to see.

These are some of the parts of the vaulted ceilings

of the halls, and in one of the halls,

here we have...

Oh yes, grapes. Carlos: Grapes.

Yeah, grapes.

So, you can see how proud he was

that he had that immortalized on one of the decor

of the vaulted ceilings.

Unbelievable.

We also found...

It also proves that they already had

the grapes here.

Exactly, exactly, exactly.

You can also see in some of the tombstones

the Jewish star of David.

So, again, his connection to the wine production

of the Jewish society here that was part

of the Jewry kosher wine.

We also found a lot of these amphoras,

parts of them.

This is a reconstruction of what a Roman amphora would look like.

And these were used, basically, since Phoenician times

to transport wine on ships across the Mediterranean.

So, we are certain that he also imported

and exported his wine all over Portugal

and gave origin to red wine.

Red wine that was produced in his time

is 80% white grapes.

Well, this is... it's really...

It's still getting... it's getting better

since you poured it out.

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Let's go look at some more artifacts.

Absolutely.

Some of the artifacts here

are connected with the history of Portugal

and also with the Discoveries, and they're all connected

with wine.

Wine was at the heart of the Discoveries

from the very beginning.

This is the copy of the document of extinction

of the Templar Order, and the Templar Order

was extinct on Friday, on a Friday the 13th,

and that's why to this day it's a day of omen,

of bad luck, because the most powerful,

important order that controlled all of the commerce in the world

and all of the trade and banking system

was unjustly convicted and declared extinct

on Friday the 13th of October.

And that's why Friday the 13th has been a bad luck day

ever since.

We know that after the collapse of the Templars

the Portuguese kings took the Order,

the Templar Order, and resurrected it

as the Order of Christ.

And the Order of Christ became the single enterprise

during the Discoveries.

They owned everything that was being discovered,

all the commerce, everything that was coming in

and going out, so they controlled everything.

They controlled the water routes to India and everywhere else.

Two interesting stories involving wine in this castle.

One has to do with the struggle for power between two brothers.

There was a king who had married a princess from Spain

who happened to have webbed feet,

and, back in the age, if you were born

with webbed feet like this, some people believed that

it was because the mother had had relations with the devil,

who had cloven hooves, like a hoof.

So, this poor girl was born with, you know, cleft feet,

and the brother of the king, who was in France,

and wanted... he coveted the throne,

he thought of a way by spreading rumors

through the church, through the...

His priests that worked for him,

to spread the rumor that she was, in fact,

bewitching the king and the kingdom

and everything else because she was

the Satan's daughter.

So, what he had planned was he had her captured

as she was coming out of mass one day

in Coimbra and they rode her all...

They rode the horse all the way down

with her on the horse to Ourém Castle,

which was considered unconquerable.

And they locked her up in the highest tower here,

which is... still has her name,

Donna Marzia, yeah.

And she was there for seven years,

locked in the tower.

Her husband laid siege to the castle,

but since it was impregnable, he wasn't able to let her go.

I mean, he wasn't able to rescue her.

And so, he lost his kingdom to his brother

and he lost his bride.

And for seven years she looked out the window

and the only thing she could see were the vineyards.

And so, there is a wine today that's named after Donna Marzia.

It's the... one of the highest rated

wines of Ourém, and it's named after her

because she was there for all these years.

We're gonna talk about the use of wine in medicine,

in medieval medicine especially, and also

in liturgical celebrations in the mass in the church.

We know that, for example, the wine that's used in the mass

was red wine because Christ used red wine

to symbolize his blood.

The wine, however, has a certain percentage of water

that's poured into it by the priest

before the consecration, and that is to remind us

of the fact that when Christ was on the cross,

he was lanced by the centurion and blood and water

gushed from the wound in his side.

So, that tradition has been maintained

and especially within the church.

The queen Saint Elizabeth of Portugal's Santa Isabel,

who was married to King Denis, they restored the Order,

the Templar Order, as the Order of Christ,

and she introduced what's called the Holy Spirit,

the Feast of the Holy Spirit, in all throughout Portugal,

especially in Tomar.

And one of the things they did in the Middle Ages

was take this crown, which was consecrated

to the Holy Spirit and had this platter underneath it,

what they did was they poured wine

through the crown,

and it symbolized the Holy Spirit.

And then the wine would come out of these apertures here

into this basin, and then, through these little openings

to the glasses that would be here below.

And then they would distribute the wine

to the people together with the bread.

Now, Saint Hildegard was another saint

that took medicinal wine to a different level.

She made a special concoction of wine

with different herbs and spices, and they are still produced

today.

They're using the same recipes that she had back then.

Like a healing wine or something.

It's like a healing wine.

Now, it's similar in recipe to what was done here

and what was done in the Middle Ages with relics.

They also poured wine through the skulls of the saints

into a basin, which then was distributed.

This wine was distributed to the pilgrims

that visited the shrine, and it was supposed to help them

with their ailments and heal them.

But there were other traditions involving wine,

and one of them was to prevent poisoning

with cyanide.

The fourth Count of Ourém is represented

in the famous, "Saint Vincent's Panels,"

this painting that depicts him wearing the clothes

that we have adapted for the confraternity

and his hat, his famous hat, but also wearing around his neck

a reliquary with a little glass flask,

and this reliquary still exists.

It is in the treasury here of the Collegiate See,

and what it contains, I found, is milk

from the blessed Virgin Mary.

You say, "Well, how can you have milk

from the blessed Virgin Mary?"

Well, he went on pilgrimage to Bethlehem,

and in Bethlehem there is the Grotto of the Milk.

It's just a white limestone chalk cave.

And the knights...

That's where they stayed.

Exactly, and the knights would take this chalk,

bring it back in bags, put it in these special little vials

around their neck, so that when they went

to friends and other places to have wine,

they wouldn't risk being poisoned

because they would pour a little bit of that chalk

into the goblet and that... this I found out,

this chalk absorbs arsenic in wine and leaves it

as a film on the bottom of the glass.

And so, even if they were poisoned,

they would consider that this was miraculous.

It was the milk of our lady.

They also had other things.

They had stones from Jerusalem, or bezoar stones,

which were made from the gallstones of the camels

and other animals, and they also absorbed arsenic

in wine.

And here we have one of these...

We're gonna make sure that your wine

hasn't been poisoned.

I didn't poison it.

Yeah.

Surely don't want to fall over here in a minute.

Ah, true testament to my faith right there.

Just drink it down, right?

Then lastly what we have here

is an interesting reliquary that has a relic of Saint Blaise

and part of the incorrupt finger of San Diego,

the one after whom San Diego in California is named.

He was a Franciscan monk.

And San Diego of Alcalá... this relic,

which is a mummified finger, was owned by Blaise,

who was the Count of Alcalá, and he had this bag made

so that he could carry this finger around with him.

And what he used as an antivenom was the powder that...

From the skin that flaked off.

And as you can see, this has openings,

much like a salt or pepper shaker,

and he would shake this into his wine,

and that would keep him, he thought,

from being poisoned.

Later on, this became a trend to the point that

in the 19th century many of the mummies of Egypt

were exhumed by some of the tribes

and local inhabitants and sold to Europeans

to be ground into mummy dust.

Mummy dust, which was medicinal, and it was also put

into your wine to keep you from being poisoned.

Kind of like a medieval snake oil.

Exactly.

Now, I'd like you to taste some of this medicinal wine,

and you tell me what you think about this.

Let's see here. Get some more in there.

It's... don't let it deceive you.

It's very strong.

Really? Carlos: Yeah.

It smells like medicine, almost.

And what does it taste like?

Actually, it tastes pretty good.

Saint Hildegarde.

I could drink that.

Well, I'll probably start feeling better tomorrow.

Let's hope so.

Well, if it won't kill you, it'll make it better, right?

There you go.

I gave it a shot.

Edwin, you're a member

of the Confraternity of Saint Nuno,

the Holy Constable, and here he is.

He was the third count of the castle.

And Nuno has a special connection to wine

that maybe you're not going to be very happy about.

He forbade wine in the army.

He forbade drinking and he forbade prostitutes

and sex because he wanted his army disciplined

because they were outnumbered by the Castilian forces 15 to 1.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And he won because of that.

Now, King John the II also wanted

this type of discipline during the Discoveries,

and what he created, or wrote, was the, "Code of Postures,"

that became sort of like an unofficial rulebook.

But at the same time, it was the first law

that was passed into effect forbidding the abuse of wine.

He said that if any man drank more than a spoonful of wine

in a glass of water,

that he was considered a drunkard.

And so, let's try out here what the wine tasted

at the time of John the II.

Oh boy, that's old stuff.

I'm game.

And now, water.

Once again, going back to the mass.

The water in the wine.

So, this is what you would have in the time of the Discoveries

of John the II if you were working here

in Portugal.

Tastes like water.

A little bit of grape water.

Mostly water, it doesn't even taste

like alcohol at all.

Well, what if I were to tell you

that that is what some of the archaeologists

believe the wine at the Last Supper

actually tasted like?

Like water.

It was very, very light.

It was not heavily alcoholic.

And even its color would be similar to this,

sort of like a brown, a dark brown.

Now, what's very interesting

is that if you were on one of the ships

and you were one of the explorers

in the Discoveries under John the II,

you would get a very good supply of wine,

and you wouldn't have to be rationed like this,

and you wouldn't be considered a drunkard

if you consumed more wine.

Basically, because you were going out in a ship

to the unknown, you didn't know how long it would be

before you would find land again.

People would probably start to mutiny,

they'd probably start to hallucinate,

and so the wine kept them under control.

So, they allowed them.

They allowed them to drink off

on their trips in the middle of nowhere

because it kept them happy and it kept them worry-free,

distracted, pretty much distracted.

So, wine also has that effect on people.

Do you know that the wine from Jerez in Spain

is exactly produced the same way as it was

at the time of Columbus, and there are registers

that go back from these wineries that have a register

of the wine that was put on the ships

at the time of Columbus?

Amazing. Wow, that's incredible.

I'd like to see those registers someday.

Well, if you go down to Jerez,

there's the wineries there, they keep a complete register.

In fact, Dave Horner, our friend who did a lot

of underwater exploration and discovered

some of the greatest sea wrecks in the world, he discovered

intact bottles of Byass Diaz's sherry,

and they still had the cork in them,

and the wine was still there, and when he gifted one of these

to the estate of the marquis of Bonanza,

who owns this winery, it's interesting that

they studied the cork to see how it had lasted underwater,

all those centuries underwater.

They also said, "Well, you know what, Mr. Horner",

we have the register of that exact bottle of wine

that you gifted to us, the cargo it was part of,

and the day it was placed on that ship

"and sent to the New World."

So, basically, the wine was still good.

Absolutely.

So, wine is... throughout history

you find wine.

It's a part of history.

So, here we are at the king's table,

and it's been here that, since 1970,

we have organized medieval banquets

for 4 million people.

One of the most special people that was queen right here

with Dom Duarte, the Duke of Braganza,

sitting right where you are, was Amália Rodrigues,

the queen of fado.

We crowned her here in 1995 as queen of fado.

And she really brought Portuguese wine

to America because in the 1950s,

when she went on tour, she went to Broadway,

and she turned some of the old fados of Portugal

that talk about the melancholy life,

about betrayal, about sickness, about death and tragedy,

fado brings to life all of this emotion,

and she exemplified... she was the voice of Portugal,

they called her, and she translated these fados

into English.

Like, "April in Portugal" is one of the fados.

But what you probably didn't know

was that she was made famous by a movie

called, "Capas Negras," black capes,

where she was a fado singer that played guitar.

And this was her guitar, the original guitar

from the 1940s.

Now, this guitar became the symbol

for the design of this bottle, Mateus Rosé.

And it was Mateus Rosé that sponsored

Amália's concerts and her tour of South America

and North America and Broadway.

And so, it was this wine that...

It's a light wine and it's... the bottle's shaped

like her guitar, that really made this wine,

which is not really heavily consumed in Portugal,

this wine.

It's more popular outside of Portugal,

and that's because of its connection

to fado and its connection to Amália.

So, I'm gonna invite you, Edwin, to go to a little restaurant

that we have here in the castle where we're going to sample

some of the medieval wine, we're gonna have

some of the entrées that we have here in the castle,

and we're also going to listen to some fado.

Okay, fantastic.

All right, let's go. All right.

So, let me ask you a question, Edwin.

What is the national symbol of Spain?

The fighting bull.

Exactly.

And what does the bull have to do with wine?

Everything. Everything, exactly.

Spirit of the Bull.

But not only that.

Did you know that back in 1958 there was a company

called Azure, and they were an advertising company,

and what they did was they took the...

One of the wineries there, and it was Osborne wine.

They had produced sherry since 1772,

and their symbol was the bull.

So, there was a great advertising campaign,

this company.

All over Spain they put these huge billboards

on hilltops, from the north to the south of Spain,

and here you see the four different styles

that they had over the years because these were

up until the 1990s when some

of the local regional governments

wanted these taken down because they

were distracting motorists, that they were also,

they thought, polluting the landscape.

But there was a national petition

to keep these on the mounts, and you see them

all over Spain to the point that the bull now,

without the Osborne logo, is the symbol of Spain.

And this is how an advertising campaign

became a national symbol.

Now, in Portugal, the same thing happened.

And this here is Sandeman, and Sandeman is

also contemporary, it's from 1790.

This Port wine was produced with this symbol...

A torero.

Yes, exactly.

He is another one of these gentlemen

that wore this hat and wore a cape

and they were just like the toreros and the forcados.

And here we have a photograph that has my great grandfather,

who was a master forcado, and his father before him.

And this symbol of the men that were involved

with the bulls, this is the symbol that

was transported to wine and to the advertising campaigns

of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.

The same thing happened

with the González Byass, Tío Pepe wine.

So, you see here again, he's wearing that

and the guitar.

So, the guitar, the fado, the traditional songs,

the fandango, all of that mixed.

That's all the history and the heritage of Iberia

connected to the ancient cult of the bull.

And, you know, the oldest, the oldest glass that was used,

the oldest container for drinking wine, was this,

the bull's horn.

So, now that you have your hat on,

you're a member of the Confraternity,

and now we're going to give you some Tío Pepe sherry.

This is the Tío Pepe sherry that was named after Dave Horner,

who discovered the Tío Pepe bottles of wine

underneath the ocean in the wreck.

Wow, what an honor.

White wine.

Wow, it smells good.

How old is that?

This is a 2017 sherry.

Wow, that's amazing.

A few more sips of that

and I'll start feeling like Zorro.

You feel the blood of the bull in there?

The spirit of el toro right there.

Spirit of the Bull. Wow, amazing.

Thank you. What an experience.

Order up.

Hello, Edwin.

This is the original bar where in 1970

John Hafford toasted with this goblet

to the first banquet that was held here.

Now, I want to tell you that the story of this restaurant

is intimately connected with wine.

The wine that we produce and we bottle here

is called the Enchanted Morris,

Orellana from the Orellana Foundation,

and we also produce Elixir.

The medieval elixir, the elixir of long life,

is a drink that the knights had, it gave them a little perk.

And this wine is in fact produced by our foundation

by the medieval restaurant since 1970,

and only three people know its secret.

And the secret is only passed on to another person

when one of the three die.

So, I'm gonna have you sample some of our medieval elixir,

and then I'm going to tell you a story about the secret

of wine manufacturing.

It tastes good.

Well...

It doesn't taste bad.

Maybe I should reserve that until I know what's in it?

Well, as I said, there are secret ingredients

to this medieval elixir,

and there are also secret ingredients

to Port wine.

Did you know that?

Yes, but nobody knew what.

Well, let me tell you the story.

Back during the Napoleonic Wars, an admiral

by the name of Lord Nelson, Horatio Nelson,

was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar,

and in order to preserve his body to be transported

back to England for a huge funeral

with military honors and state honors,

they had to preserve his body in a keg full of wine.

They pickled him.

And afterwards the story says when they removed Lord Nelson

and buried him with honors, someone said, "Hey,

I wonder if the wine's still good."

And it was.

And so they drank it, but they never again

dared produce wine such as that.

However, in Ourém there is a tradition

of burying bottles of wine for several months

and conducting a burial service called,

"The Burial of the Wine,"

and then after Easter unearthing that wine

and you call it Resurrection wine.

That's a tradition here in Ourém.

Now, when the Napoleonic invasions

came to Portugal, and they invaded Portugal

three times, the army got very rowdy

after raiding some of the estates

where wine was produced.

And so, the generals, because of the lack of discipline,

were unable to hold Portugal.

And so, there were three successive

and failed invasions.

On the third invasion the general said,

"It is absolutely forbidden for any man to drink wine

"during this campaign," under the threat

of being court martialed.

So, knowing this, the Portuguese,

who had suffered greatly by the pillaging of food,

they took all their livestock, they took all their wheat,

they took everything that they really needed,

to the point that the people of Lisbon

were left with little more than lettuce to survive.

The people of Porto were left with the entrails

of the animals, which they turned into tripe.

So, today, the people of Lisbon are still known as alfacinhas,

which means lettuce eaters, whereas the people of Porto

are known as tripeiros, and that is tripe eaters.

Now, the secret to Port wine comes from the fact that

the local inhabitants and the wineries,

which were British run, knowing about the fact that

the Napoleonic soldiers were forbidden to drink wine,

they slaughtered all the livestock

and they put it in the wine, the wine kegs,

remembering the story of Lord Nelson

and how they preserved him.

Now, they thought, we're going to marinade this,

as it would be marinated in cooking,

and we'll put all the spices in there.

So, they put cloves and garlic and pepper

and all sorts of things depending on what...

If it was lamb or if it was pork or whatever it was, or beef,

that they were putting in these kegs to preserve.

And when the French left,

because they couldn't touch the wine,

so the wine survived intact, the kegs survived intact,

and the meat inside survived intact for the winter,

ready, marinated to cook, and somebody said,

"Hey, I wonder if the wine is still good."

And... just like Lord Nelson.

And sure enough it was, so they devised a way

to replicate that wine.

And so, some of the Port wineries today,

their secret ingredient is meat, depending on

what type of meat they had particularly hidden

in their kegs at the time of the French revolution

and what spices they had put into the...

That mixture.

So, I'm going to allow you now to try

one of the oldest Port wines we have

from the time of Napoleon.

This wine is that old? This wine is that old.

Is it because they transferred to...

No, this is from an original bottle.

Are you serious? Carlos: Yes, sir.

Still has a smell of wine to it.

Like, it still smells kind of like a Port,

just not as strong.

How old is this?

And the verdict is...?

It's not bad.

It's actually not bad.

Oh, there you go.

Well, toast to Lord Nelson.

There you are. Cheers.

Cheers.

Oh, hello, Edwin.

Hello.

Well, today we gave you a history

of the Castle of Ourém and its connection to wine

and how the royal house of Portugal

has from the beginning promoted wine

all over the world.

This is the diary of the fourth Count of Ourém.

The fourth Count of Ourém, who was the firstborn

of the house of Braganza, went on a journey

to the Council of Basel and Ferrara in the 1430s,

and that's when he brought back the first red grapes,

and he mixed them with the white wine

that he already produced.

And because there weren't enough red grapes

to make red wine, the wine was produced

with 80% Fernão Pires, Fernão Pires white grapes,

and 20% red grapes, Trincadeira.

So, the medieval wine of Ourém has been produced

ever since 1445 by the people here in the castle

using the exact same recipe same the fourth Count of Ourém

wrote in his diary.

So, as the historian here of Ourém Castle,

I want to offer you here some of our books,

the story of the fourth Count of Ourém,

the story of the history of the Castle of Ourém,

and the story of the counts of Ourém,

from the first count to the current count,

Dom Duarte.

And here we have the medal of the 600th anniversary

of the birth of Dom Afonso, the fourth count of Ourém.

That's incredible, sir. Thank you very much.

I'm very honored to have... To receive these gifts.

Thank you so much.

And we're very happy to have you

as a member of this family.

Now, the first act, as member and knight

of our royal orders, is for you to sign

the ancient register that has the continuation

of all of the members of the confraternity

of medieval wine.

And your name now will be alongside

many of the illustrious members,

including many of the crowned heads of Europe.

Oh, I'm seeing Dom Duarte Pio

on the top.

He is number one on our list.

Fantastic.

So, we're gonna ask you to sign.

Congratulations. Edwin: Thank you.

Dom Duarte Pio: I would like you to meet

the firstborn

of the House of Braganza.

Edwin, you are also a member

of the confraternity of Saint Nuno.

He was the grandson

of the Grand Master of the Confraternity.

This is his coat of arms,

it has the Portuguese Royal coat of arms

and the coat of arms of Nuno Alvares Pereira.

The... one of the titles that I hold,

it's also the Count of Ourém.

This is the tomb of the fourth Count of Ourém,

Dom Afonso, and he was the person

who introduced in Portugal and I think

in the whole peninsula the wines to produce red wine.

Before we had only white wine.

And then, in fact, he was also considered

the father of the Jewish community here.

And the the Jewish community controlled

most of the wine trade at the time,

which you support.

So, it became very important here for the local economy.

And I think that this is the most appropriate place

to invest you in the confraternity

of medieval wines.

I'd be most honored, your Royal Highness.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Dom Duarte: I'm so happy for you, Edwin.

Thank you.

This epic journey to learn, discover,

and procure has come to an end.

As I look back, I ask myself, "Has this all been a dream?

If so, please don't wake me."

This has been a red, white, and regal experience

beyond all imagination and expectation.

This story will forever serve as a constant reminder

that wine does indeed have the power

to transcend time and space.

All that I've gained and all that I've learned

barely scratches the surface of the deep history

and culture of wine.

So, I must rephrase.

This is not the end of our journey.

It is just the beginning.