The A-list
In the last couple of weeks I have stepped back into a world I thought I’d left behind and one which is approximately a million miles from our off-grid life in Vale das Estrelas.
The last time I spoke to George Clooney he told me he liked my gold bow tie.
It was on the red carpet at the Golden Globes which he told me he preferred to the Oscars as it was much more fun and relaxed and you could have a drink.
Now the Clooney family are following in the footsteps of the French designers Philippe Starck and Christian Louboutin, the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei...as well as Ana and Alastair Leithead Spross of course…by moving to Alentejo.
And so – we found out recently – is Princess Eugenie, and that was the reason for a trip up the coast of Alentejo to explore one of the hottest A-list places in Europe right now for Hollywood royalty, royal royalty and the royally well-off.
Just an hour or so north towards Lisbon, property prices are going nuts, the local grocery store sells fine Champagnes, caviar and one of Alentejo’s most expensive and exclusive red wines (Pêra Manca) for only €395 a bottle.
The Daily Telegraph had asked me to find out what Princess Eugenie, her husband and one year old son August will be stepping into when they move into their exclusive gated golf and lifestyle community that her husband Jack Brooksbank is marketing to the super-rich.
It’s located between already outrageously priced Comporta, and soon to be overrun-by-the-rich Melides where the original, resident famous designers are now fleeing the cool beach bars and fancy restaurants for “authenticity.”
The first thing that struck me was how much construction there was going on – especially in nearby Carvalhal – with gated resorts being made of wood and bamboo and workmen digging up roads and hurriedly laying infrastructure before the summer rush.
I now know why it took us so long to find a builder – all the builders in Portugal are here on what’s sometimes called the Costa Azul (the Blue Coast).
But now we have found a builder, the large piles of sand and gravel are growing as much on our land as they are in Carvalhal, and what’s more they have been joined by large stacks of bricks, tin sheds and a very large cement mixer.
Senor Manuel is preparing to start work on our tourist lodge the moment the permit is issued by the town hall (which we hope will be very soon...we paid an extremely large fee today).
I walked the site with Carlos the landscaper, talking hügelkulturs, olive trees, wine grapes and raised beds.
Suddenly imagining is coming close to doing.
We explained it all and were given a huge boost of encouragement by Ed, Rach and Daisy who recently stayed – our old friends who are leading the field on return visits at three...and with a fourth already in the diary.
Daisy knows what the A-listers see in this stretch of wild coast: she’s fallen in love with the beaches, the ocean and the little river estuaries, and now spends her surfing lessons largely upstanding.
While they were here we discovered a completely new secret beach with deep rock pools where your feet can’t touch the bottom, through an arch carved out of the layered rocky cliffs of granite, shists and sandstone.
The shifting sands have collected in this new secret spot, lined with caves and only accessible from another beach at low tide (you’ll have to come and stay to find it!).
We took an early morning trip through the valley to Medronho Jorge for a fresh pig leg which we slow cooked in Daniel’s wood oven overnight; we had a sea bass and sausage braai; and we ate percebes goose-neck barnacles and amêijoas clams at the famous O Sacas restaurant (thanks for the birthday treat Ed & Rach!).
The Edna Leithead Memorial International Darts Tournament trophy (named after my late mum) was already up for grabs, and anyone who played at the funeral is allowed to turn up, demand a tournament for the right to reclaim the toby-jug trophy.
An all-family final ensured the beautiful ornament remained in Vale das Estrelas, but despite our precocious dartsing talent, it could be that Ed & family threw their matches to avoid having to take it home?
Sadly my beach time was curtailed by the Daily Telegraph assignment which came after another round of me trying to find the right people in British newspapers to pitch unusual and interesting stories about Portuguese travel, wine and history.
We’ve found some really fun stories on our podcast travels, some of which make it to this blog or to the wine blog, but others I’m keeping up my sleeve for a newspaper feature or a week when I’m short of inspiration.
The article began: “South of Lisbon, on Portugal’s wild Atlantic coast, is a narrow strip of land between the beach and a bumpy and battered B-road that is fast becoming a highway for A-list celebrities: both Hollywood royalty and royal royalty.”
I joked about how Princess Eugenie won’t be asking to borrow a cup of sugar over the fence from the Clooneys as the villas will be so isolated and private, hidden in the woods and on the sandy clifftops overlooking one of the most beautifully deserted beaches in Europe.
“It’s not about parties on the beach or over-the-top glam, but a discreet glamour,” Teresa Barros of the Xpose Consulting marketing company told me.
People come here for simplicity, she said, which is “the ultimate luxury.”
But it’s getting so well known for being a place for the rich and famous that the rich and famous are looking for somewhere secure and off the beaten track or a little further south, nearer us.
The point is, if you don’t know how to find the CostaTerra Golf & Ocean Club then you probably don’t need to know...and you probably can’t afford to know.
A 2018 Google Map showed the unfinished golf course and so I searched for a turn-off.
A wrong turn took me to another exclusive, under-construction private villa resort which turns out to be the cheap seats where you can get a three bed, three bath villa with a pool for just £2m (the price for a plot at CostaTerra starts at £3m).
I was flagged off the road by a wide load – a gigantic white box with the words “Tree House” written on the side. The pre-fabricated wood and stilts eco-architecture was arriving; I was getting close.
Surely it couldn’t be the road signposted as “campsite,” but it was, and soon I was driving straight into the craziness of a big construction site which was working to a serious deadline.
The organic garden of the Discovery Land Company development was looking good, the old olive trees lining the central reservation were establishing themselves well – as was the grass on what I presumed was the driving range.
But earth was still being moved: a few homes were under construction on the cliffs through the trees, and only the golf course fairways are so far finished.
And strangely enough the campsite reception folk told me it isn’t for the public any more. It’s just for those who already own beach shacks who presumably might well be bought out for big bucks if they’re in someone’s view.
It’s nice to know we’ve moved to a part of the world popular with the rich and famous and if they wanted to check out our “discreet glamour” we wouldn’t turn them away.
The gold bow tie is still in the cupboard, George, even if it’s worn a lot less than the work-gloves.
But we like being on the undiscovered wild coast, where we can’t buy fancy French Champagne in the local shop...and why would we when Portuguese Espumantes are so good?
Oh, and the Daily Telegraph article has been sitting on their shelf for a few weeks now, so the secret is safe with us...for now.
Very much relate to the builders all building luxury escapes. Half the tradespeople here have been booked for years working on Oprah's latest estate (rumored to partially pressurized to help those traveling from sea level.) We still find our secrets here, too.
We know the supermarket of which you write; we call it Little Harrods (price, range and quality). Yes prices down there are off the charts, never seen anyone famous while having coffee and cake in the local coffee shops (we don't count 😃). We own a plot of land about 30 minutes inland from Comporta we are trying to build on. Love your blog. Look forward to reading your Telegraph article. 👍