About Us

The early years

On our first (and only!) holiday in Portugal in 1993, shortly after we had met, Helga and I stayed most of the time not far from Obidos in Foz D’Arelho, at The Facho a famous hotel built in 1910 with interiors exactly like it was in then, down to the finest detail. And it was right on the beach! We loved it and the idea to buy a house and move to Portugal was born.

The hotel owner suggested a real estate agent and we met Isabel Lino and began looking. As luck would have it we were in her office the next day and there were photos of a ruin on the wall. Whats that we asked? “Oh no, too much of a ruin for you” was Isabel’s reply. “Show us” we said! So she did, and it was love at first sight.

In the following years Isabel’s husband Dario, an architect, helped us with the organisation and renovation of the house which was done by two persons, Daniel (also our wine expert), and José Orta an excellent and creative local builder. He had worked most of his life in France ,and so we could converse in French! We came down regularly in the following years with our ideas and sketches of how the place should look and slowly it came together.

We were both working full time in Munich at the time, I as sound engineer and product designer in my company Ambient Recording www.ambient.de and Helga as sound editor on features and TV films.

The house took 10 years to finish but in 2005 it was ready to move in.

So Helga moved and lived there alone in 2005 and I commuted from Munich to Portugal every 3 weeks for the next 3 years on a three here, three there routine.

In 2008 I sold my part of Ambient and we started life together here in Cortém.

WineEccentrics

You may wonder why our website is now called ‘Wineeccentrics.’

Our website used to be called Vinhoscortém, but we sold most of the winery in 2019 including the domain name vinhoscortem.

We searched for a new name and came up with Wineeccentrics, Wines with a difference. And the wine-makers who make them, a bit eccentric yes, above all passionate about wine and our winemaking region. And. we still have a vineyard and will continue to make wine!