In 2014 Pedro Henrique Ramos and his wife decided to move to Portugal to learn more about Portuguese wine. “Look, let’s go study abroad, gain more knowledge and see what that get’s us. Worst case scenario we come back wiser, and if it works out, we stay [in Portugal]”, he recalls.
Back in Brazil he was in Marketing, but he had always had a passion for wine in general, and Portuguese wine had always been part of his life. “My grandparents were Portuguese, so wine was always part of my father’s heritage”, he says.
Great selection, considering the size of the country
Compared to Brazil, Portugal is a small country, but, considering the “amount of wine on offer”, Pedro Henrique Ramos says it stands on its own two feet. So, he stayed on, always working in this field.
Meanwhile, he also fell in love with Portugal’s other characteristics. “Since all wine requires good food, I am truly mad for Portuguese cuisine”, he explains.
But Pedro Henrique Ramos also knows that Portugal is about more than food and drink, and also a good place to travel, taking into the account the diversity of the landscape. “We are fond of the beach, we go south, to the Algarve. When I want to go to the mountain, we head north, over near Serra da Estrela. And if I want lakes and rivers, we go to the Gerês, or the Douro.”
As with wine, here, again, the size of the country in no way reflects “he diversity of unbelievable options”.
Country hopping
Born in Belo Horizonte, Pedro Henrique Ramos has lived in several parts of Brazil, but also abroad. It was in Rio de Janeiro, however, that he lived for the longest time in a row.
When comparing his life in Portugal with what he had before, he says things have changed considerably. “Here I have a much more tranquil life, when compared to Rio de Janeiro, for instance”, he states.
Portugal is a much cheaper country for a family of newly-weds than Brazil. “Life can be very intense for newlyweds in Rio, you need to make a lot of money to afford private education, health, all of that”, he says, adding that “it was a little easier to start this new life together.”
Future in Portugal
Currently, besides working as a sommelier at a restaurant, Pedro Henrique Ramos and his wife developed “a project where we talk about wine online, especially on Instagram (@pedrones_somm)”.
In the future, he believes that he may step away from the restaurant sector and focus, for example, on a wine course. “I think that if I leave Lisbon, I might move north, to live on an estate where I can be in touch with the vines themselves.”
