The first Beira Interior Gourmet Contest will take place from July 10 to August 10, in more than three dozen restaurants in the region, announced the Beira Interior Regional Wine Commission.

The contest, which is organized with the aim of promoting the 'marriage' of wines with local cuisine, was scheduled to run from March 14 to April 16, but was postponed due to the pandemic caused by the covid-19.

The Beira Interior Regional Wine Commission (CVRBI) announced, in a statement sent to the Lusa agency, that it decided to proceed with the realization of the initiative “after meeting the conditions for opening the restaurants”.

Beira Interior Gourmet participates in “more than three dozen restaurants” in the region, which in that period “will have menus available to the general public”. “Having overcome this difficult phase of confinement, which is particularly painful for the region's restaurant businessmen, our competition won a double meaning,” says the organizing entity.

CVRBI, chaired by Rodolfo Queirós, points out that the contest is based on “valuing and making known the quality and creativity of restaurants and wines in Beira Interior” and also “helping to revive the great dynamics generated by an economic, tourist and soul recovery. , in the 'post-covid-19 ′ ”.

With the initiative, the promoting entity aims to “value (above all) DO wines [Denomination of Origin] Beira Interior and IG [Geographical Indication] Terras da Beira, and their producers, promoting excellence in the restoration of the region”.

The CVRBI project is part of the strategy for promoting wine tourism in the region, with the Beira Interior Wine Route, recently created, making the event “a bet on the development of Beira Interior”, according to the source.

The competition covers 20 municipalities in Beira Interior (involves the entire district of Castelo Branco and the counties of Almeida, Celorico da Beira, Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, Guarda, Manteigas, Mêda, Pinhel, Sabugal and Trancoso, in the district of Guarda).

The jury chaired by Fernando Melo, wine and gastronomy critic, will visit the restaurants between 10 July and 10 August. The contest has the categories of “Regional / traditional cuisine”, “Creative / evolutionary cuisine” and “Cuisine European and the world ”.

CVRBI, based in Solar do Vinho, in Guarda, already promotes, in collaboration with NERGA - Business Association of the Region of Guarda and the Business Association of Beira Baixa (AEBB), a wine contest from Beira Interior, which in 2019 met its 12th edition.

That entity covers the wine-growing areas of Castelo Rodrigo, Pinhel and Cova da Beira, in the districts of Guarda and Castelo Branco, where it has more than 60 members, including four cooperative wineries.