The Zom Coleção wines have just hit the market, bottled in the Martín Berasategui System (MBS) bottle, the result of the alliance between the tradition and experience of the van Zeller family and the modernity and creativity of chef Martín Berasategui, who has been collecting Michelin stars since 1981. The van Zeller family - which has been in the Douro wine business for 14 consecutive generations, being the oldest in Portugal in this business uninterruptedly since the beginning of the 17th century - has just launched Zom wines, the company's premium brand, under the Van Zeller Wine Collection S.A. label. Zom wines are the latest fruit from the oldest demarcated region in the world and owe their name to the Zom stream, which is located 2 km south of Freixo de Espada à Cinta, in the Upper Douro, right in the heart of the Douro International Natural Park, home to the Bonelli's eagle, featured on the illustration of the Zom 2008 red label. Zom red 2008 is a practically unwooded wine to be drunk young and to express the 'terroir' without the interference of wood, making it more economical. These wines are of high quality and at a controlled price, as demanded by today's consumer. Zom Colecção 2008 was aged in French oak barrels for 18 months. A small part of the blend was left in stainless steel to give it freshness for the final blend. With almost equal parts of the grapes coming from old vines in the Douro Superior and the Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca varieties from the same sub-region, it is a wine that reveals the romantic and tenacious character of this World Heritage region. Van Zeller Wine Collection currently exports to France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, England, Ireland, Poland, Canada, China, Brazil, the USA and Scandinavia, and it was this region of Europe that saw the biggest growth in exports last year, particularly Denmark.

Chef Martín Berasategui System presents MBS bottle Zom was the wine chosen to inaugurate the Martín Berasategui System (MBS) bottle in Portugal, which is designed for wines that are subject to deposit formation over a longer or shorter period of time. Chef Martín Berasategui - whose restaurant bearing his name, located in Lasarte-Oria (Gipuzkoa) in the Basque Country, has a Michelin three-star rating - came to Portugal for the first time at the end of May to present the Zom red wines and his MBS bottle to the media and the catering and distribution sectors. In the morning, Porto hosted the tasting of these wines and the presentation of the MBS bottle, followed by lunch at the Hotel Infante Sagres. In the afternoon it was Lisbon's turn to get to know Zom wines and MBS, ending with dinner at the Pestana Palace Hotel - Palácio Vale Flor. At these events, Martín Berasategui expressed his desire to have Zom wines and some Barão de Vilar Port wines on the menus of all his restaurants in the Basque Country, Barcelona, Tenerife, Shanghai, Seville and Bilbao.