WHAT nicer than to sit in the sun, open a bottle of vinho verde and while away the afternoon comfortable in the knowledge that you really should be working, but that it can wait until tomorrow.
Portuguese wines seem to have a quality that is their own, especially for people in Hongkong who have ready access to some of the best when they visit Macau. In fact, the wine can often be enjoyed at almost absurdly low prices.
What few people realise, however, is that Portugal, despite its tiny land area, is one of the largest wine-producing countries in the world.
It produces four times as much table wine as California, its wines come second only to tourism in terms of the foreign exchange it brings into the country, and the country has a history of production which dates back to Roman times.
Though madeira, port and Mateus rose are the three names most frequently associated with Portuguese wines, there is a tremendous variety available.
Take vinho verde, for example. Described by wine guru Hugh Johnson as Portugal's ''specific contribution to the great table wines of the world'', there is nothing else, anywhere, quite like it.