A tourist sits at a table with a friend and swishes the last of his wine and thinks how to answer the question just asked of him.
Tourist: Yes, I picked grapes in Alentejo. I HAD hoped to learn to make Vinho de Talha; I HAD hoped to learn a few important phrases and terms in Portuguese, but…
Friend: What is Vinho de Talha?
Tourist: It is the same process the Romans used. The wine ferments naturally in an open barrel for a few weeks or months. It is a young wine.
Friend: Doesn’t it turn to vinegar on contact with the open air?
Tourist: No; the grape skins float to the top to form an impenetrable surface layer between the air and the fermenting wine in the barrel. The process couldn’t be simpler, and I like the wine, too.
Friend: So, what did you learn?
Tourist: The old Portuguese men taught me only a single word.
The tourist raises his glass to sip his wine but spills on his shirt.
Friend: You just spilled on your shirt.
Tourist: Porra. That’s the word they taught me.
The end.