Nadir (French) and Sílvia (Portuguese) were living in Paris until 2005, where a big chunk of their free time was devoted to wine, visiting producers in many countries, tasting, drinking. The warm encounters with these special producers (both human and viticulturally) are our greatest master class and the reason for our enthusiasm. When our free time wasn’t enough anymore, we decided to create Os Goliardos in Lisbon, where we Sílvia’s family and friends. In 2005, Nadir Bensmail, Sílvia Mourão Bastos and Manuel Amaral Beja opened the company with the aim of promoting wine fairly, within its European diversity, through its craftsmanship, a natural approach and the close relationship with each producer.
Since then on, we started performing various activities that are still ongoing today, just because we are Goliards and we have an undeniable will to make new things – always with the motivation of promoting a wider more truthful wine world.
2005 – The opening of our courses for the open wineded and the curious, creating a network of Goliards that most often than not were not directly related to the wine industry, but were sensitive in regards to the spirit of the group, its ethics and knowledgeability.
2006 – The opening of the Os Goliardos bar in Lisbon, where we could create an environment for a type of wines that until then were frowned upon in the Lisbon wine context. It was a tiny cute place, next to Praça da Alegria, where quirky encounters and great parties took place.
2007 – The opening of the Goliardos’ Academy, with our monthly proposals to discover the world of wine, brought to your door.
2008 – The beginning of the 1001 Nights (the Arabian Nights) with theme tastings.
2009 – The creation of the Amalgam group, which gathers many producers with wine professionals in different areas, willing to debate over a variety of themes.
2010 – The first Vinho ao Vivo (The European Terroir Festival), co-produced with A Margem.
2011 – The beginning of our wine collection which we named Uvelhas Negras (wordplay which means a crossing of something like black sheep and the dark colored grapes). These wines are crafted together with producers as an attempt to experiment the making of a more Goliardic wine, fresh and diverse, made in small quantities.
2013 – We lived in Barolo (Italy) for a year in order to learn more about viticulture and vinification by an in loco study with the producers who we value the most. From there, we created a yearly event called Vini Corsari, which is co-produced with Cantina G. Rinaldi and gathers 30 different European producers.
2014 – The closing of our Bar, motivated by the will to have more time to spend dedicating ourselves to other areas, such as distribution and wine consulting in many restaurants and bars in Lisbon.
2015 – The development of our exports within Spain and Italy, via local partners… Goliards from abroad.
Goliards will never be in cruising speed as that is not our nature.