Wine and religion.
August is approaching, a month traditionally related to holidays, the beach and also very frequent and special for “our” emigrants to return for a few days to their homeland, to their village, and to join their people.
We remember this theme mainly because we have just launched a wine that has already been served at Pope Francisco's table when his last visit to Portugal, the EMINÊNCIA 2013 White Wine.
Also in honor of our many emigrants who work and live a little around the world, and this year due to the current situation they will not be able to return to Portugal and even many of them being Catholics will not be able to complete their usual pilgrimages.
XPTO
In Portugal it is customary to use an expression on many occasions, namely for example, I have an XPTO smartphone or my father has an all XPTO car, in short, as a way to highlight the differentiating factor of the target.
However, the truth is that the Origin of the Expression XPTO is intrinsically related to the Catholic Church, namely with the Wines of Mass or Lacrima Christi.
Yes, the term XPTO was once used, in its written form, in wine barrels that were specially prepared and supplied to the Church, to be used in the middle of Mass. If you want to know more about this detail click on the article on the portal www.clubevinhosportugueses.pt, see and review it by clicking here.
Indeed, wine is an ancient drink, known and consumed in humanity for centuries, just as its relationship with religion occurs in such a natural way that it is even forgotten.
That is why we remember to share a curiosity, and as in our portfolio of Portuguese Wines we find some relationship with religion, as we have already mentioned a Wine from the Vinho Verde Region, we also had another one with a Hebrew certification, or better Kosher.
A KOSHER certification results from a way of attesting that the products manufactured by a certain company obey the specific rules that govern the orthodox Jewish diet.
In this sense, madeinportucale.com has a Wine with this certification, namely Félix Rocha - Kosher Red Wine 2010, from the Lisbon Region.
In short, Wine is present in several religious rituals, not all, even some religions (eg Islam) prevent its consumption which obviously has to be respected, but at least we have identified two religions.
In Christianity, it represents the blood of Jesus, already in Judaism, it is a constant presence in the Old Testament (of the whole Bible, only the Book of Jonah does not mention wine) and, according to the followers of Moses, the first vision what the “Promised Land” would be was a bunch of grapes.
Christianity, being a symbol of several elements that are linked to the trajectory of Jesus on Earth, so for us at Made in Portucale it is another example that we are facing a very special Drink, regardless of our individual beliefs.
