President Obama and Quinta do Noval

a symbolic exchange of gifts

As is customary when heads of state make visits, US president Barack Obama and Portuguese president Anibal Cavaco Silva exchanged gifts last Friday in Lisbon, before the start of the NATO summit.

President Cavaco gave his counterpart a bottle of Quinta do Noval Vintage 2008, a magnificent crystal decanter designed by Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza Vieira and a set of port glasses. The gift was a symbolic one. Quinta do Noval was one of the few great Port houses to declare a vintage in 2008– the year Obama took office. In return, the US president gave Cavaco Silva a copy of the very first treaty signed between Portugal and the US, in 1840.

1 December 2010 - Felicity Murray