Simon Thomas Tarmo

Casa Valduga - A Sparkling Star from Brazil (Meininger's Wine Business International - December 2009 Edition) Joao Valduga is in front of 11 foreign journalists presenting an elite selection of Casa Valduga wines. He is, in every sense, standing right behind these sparkling and still offerings, all produced in the heart of Brazil's most distinguished wine region, the Vale dos Vinhedos (Valley of the Vines), nestled in the Serra Gaucha mountain range in the far south of the country. As the tasting unfolds and the group of mainly Europe-based journalists sniff, sip, gargle and spit their way through the winery's eight best examples, Joao, the winery's director of enology, remains on foot, pacing back and forth and scanning every face for telltale signs of approval, insight, frustration or disappointment. True to his enthusiastic yet focused manner, he requests or more so demands comments - good, bad or ugly - on every wine, and although communication is at times diffic...

Cup half full in Brazil? - Major Events International Simon Tarmo, 18 May 2009 After almost two years of relative inaction, Brazil is finally waking up to the fact that it will be hosting one of the world's biggest events in five years time, writes Brazil-based journalist Simon Tarmo. FIFA will announce the 12 Brazilian cities that will host 64 matches at the end of May 2009 The 2014 FIFA World Cup should create a veritable revolution in terms of technology The Brazilian government has launched a new project aimed at significantly raising the bar on spectator security Although Brazil was selected as the host of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in mid-2007, only in recent months have the first rumblings of Cup-focused planning and development really begun. At the end of May 2009, FIFA will announce the 12 Brazilian cities that will host 64 matches over two months in June and July 2014. This selection process has been the driver of a wave of activity from state governments and c...

Brazil: Arriving in São Paulo By Simon Tarmo September 25, 2007 I have arrived. I have packed up my life and now I'm in one of the biggest, craziest cities in the world - São Paulo. Actually, this is just a temporary stay, for a couple of days, before I move on to my new home for a few years or so - Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brasil. But I‘ll speak of São Paulo for now. To begin somewhat poetically, the sheer size of the city alone makes the mind shift to different places, places where my former safe, secure and controlled existence (in Sydney, Australia) are overcome by semi-subconscious feelings of possibility, excitement and the unknown. I touch down at about midnight on a Friday and quickly clear the tired and bored looking federal police and customs officers, before picking up my 92kg of luggage (yes, we paid handsomely for the extra kilos but it‘s hard to leave your previous world behind) and greeting my good friend Augusto (Guto for short), who had just arrived to pick me...