Alastair Leithead, Author at Portugal Resident

Alastair Leithead

Alastair Leithead is a former BBC foreign correspondent now living off the grid in rural Alentejo. You can find Ana & Al’s Big Portuguese Wine Adventure wherever you get your podcasts.

Decked out: Wood and calçada cobblestone decks surround the pool and the main building|Living space: the last building cabin leaves the Valley of the Stars with Justo|Cobbling it together: it took four days for three calçada artists to lay the limestone deck, including stars and compacting the surface|Going swimmingly? Dipping our toes into the water of building ... and soon running ... a tourist lodge|Cutting a new path: landscaping with gravel, tout-venant … and wood chips to come|Oak story: Keeping the memory alive, we made planks from our fallen cork oak tree and fashioned them into bathroom benches|To infinity and beyond: we fell in love with the view of rolling hills all the way to Monchique

Off Grid and Ignorant in Portugal – Moving mountains: the builders have gone; now it’s up to us

In the end, they left with a whimper rather than a bang. Almost unnoticed, machines and material on the building site gradually started disappearing until suddenly there was nothing left

June 28, 2024by Alastair Leithead

Learning by doing: we started our formal wine education during the podcast series on Alentejo wine|Talking wine: Australian winemaker David Baverstock has been making Portuguese wine since the 1980s – most of it at Esporão|Cellar stories: Interviewing former Esporão chief winemaker Sandra Alves in their huge underground wine bunker|Sign of the times: Alentejo produces 40% of Portugal’s wine|Pink sky, pink wine: there’s something about oysters and rosé – the blissful view from our home.|A Monumental Wine: The Esporão tower, or Torre, gives its name to their finest wine and appears on every bottle|Going underground: Vicentino’s assistant winemaker Ana Rita Bouça and general manager Filipe Caetano in their new winery barrel room

Off Grid and Ignorant in Portugal – Wine time: a new podcast series on the wines of Alentejo

We didn’t give up our jobs and move to the Alentejo just for the great wine, but since we arrived, wine has taken a central role. Portugal was the obvious

June 2, 2024by Alastair Leithead

The to-do list as an art form: the post-it note wall|The Big Picture: things are really starting to take shape. We hope the beautiful green patch we planted will help boost the vineyard-to-be|Ah, there it is: the cable (here) can now be connected in the little house (here), saving us huge amounts of time and money.|Phases of the pool: applying a preparatory layer before the final finish|Roman-style talha amphorae and a pink sunset over Vale das Estrelas

Off Grid and Ignorant in Portugal – The Big Picture: And a large new post-it note wall of good intentions

The first sign of summer is when planting a tree turns from simply picking a spot and digging up a bit of soil … to battering through concrete. It took

April 27, 2024by Alastair Leithead

Homeward bound: rescued dog arriving home in the rain|That just about cuts it: Niels plasma cutting…like a knife through frozen butter|Doors and windows: the whole job was done from start to finish in three days.|The container before: applying anti-rust paint and planning the first cuts|Full to overflowing, but leaking too|Have you seen Simon? The poster we put up around town

Off-Grid and Ignorant in Portugal – Missing: When a week lasts a month

I don’t remember a week like it. It lasted a month but was gone in a flash. The emotional rollercoaster was so steep the cars barely stayed on the tracks.

March 31, 2024by Alastair Leithead

So far so good: the view of Vale das Estrelas under construction|Fruitful: Al and Ana with their essential new auction acquisition|Landslide: a whole section of the hillside has slipped...any idea how to repair this?|Not the only fruit: we ‘ve got limes & lemons too!|Purple sunrise: it’s a great time of the year in Alentejo for dramatic sunrises

Off Grid and Ignorant in Portugal – Wheel of fortune – and why you should help us do this thing

It was my first live auction and, despite being online, it was still very exciting. Exciting enough for me to keep on asking my wife Ana if she was sure

March 4, 2024by Alastair Leithead

Digging the trenches for water pipes and electrical cables on the Vale das Estrelas building site|Alastair inspecting the ruined fossa reed-bed and tank water treatment system after the flood and landslide|The ruined fossa reed-bed and tank water treatment system after the flood and landslide|Alastair Leithead is now dealing with a different type of tank, but it can be almost as stressful|The new trench which was heading straight for a lot of electronics before it was diverted|Valley sunrise

Off Grid and Ignorant in Portugal – Landslide! A soggy surprise and a nasty setback

“Why didn’t I think of that?” is a question I’ve beaten myself up asking many times in this odd new off-grid life when the latest thing to go wrong has

January 26, 2024by Alastair Leithead

Plaster and paint make a huge difference – all we need now is doors and windows and we’re getting somewhere!|Digging in – Alastair over his head trying to get a new water tank level while pondering the houses on the hill|Every off-grid property needs infrastructure and this ditch will help us collect rainwater and recycle waste into irrigation|A misty morning view down the valley|Installing a 200,000-litre pillow tank to make us water-secure|A badly-maintained eucalyptus forest covered the level ground on the top of the hill where we decided to build|Just a year on, two of the buildings really started to take shape|The building site and the view from the middle of this year

Off Grid and Ignorant in Portugal – Big ambitions

In the day-to-day battle of managing a big building project in the Alentejo, it’s often easy to miss the obvious evidence of just what’s been achieved so far. Returning visitors

December 26, 2023by Alastair Leithead

A November sunrise over our valley|Chestnut UNSPLASH SML|“Saint Martin and the Beggar” by Greek mannerist painter El Greco is perhaps the most famous painting of the story (c1597–1599)|Various depictions of St Martin and the beggar from an internet search page|One of our favourite beaches on the SW Alentejo coast for a St Martin’s summer dip

Off-grid and ignorant in Portugal – Saints and sunshine

So, what’s the connection between a Roman soldier, roasted chestnuts and a nice patch of November sun? The answer is Saint Martin, and he’s also responsible for the death of

December 1, 2023by Alastair Leithead

In all its glory: who could say no to a free bar like that?|AL & Francesinha SML|Bar on a hill: a temporary resting place for Alastair, Alan and the new bar|Vanessa and Jeremy after the first, unsuccessful phase of Operation Free Bar … her mallet wasn’t big enough|Sunrise valley SML

Off-grid and Ignorant in Portugal – Operation free bar

In my experience, it’s never good to turn down the offer of a free bar, as it’s always fun and it usually leads to new friendships. The lengths people will

October 27, 2023by Alastair Leithead

When Al and Ana started out, this was a eucalyptus forest ... now it’s taking shape|A year on, the eco-resort is taking shape|Eucalyptus trees were removed before supplies could be delivered and building could begin|A rainbow over Vale das Estrelas, or Valley of the Stars|Solar panels will power Alastair and Ana’s eco-lodge|Alastair’s latest schematic plan for how to bring drinking water to the guests

Building a new life

A journalist and a diplomat walk into the Portuguese countryside, find a great view and decide to give up their jobs and build an eco-lodge. It sounds like some kind

September 30, 2023by Alastair Leithead