Finding old favorites is a lovely surprise, but discovering new favorites makes for an extraordinary evening. For your next discovery, visit SPECIAL GOINGS-ON to see our upcoming wine dinners where the menu is designed around a selection of wines.
At 26, Eduardo Porto Carreiro may certainly be one of the youngest Wine Directors in Los Angeles. But along with a youthful enthusiasm for his craft, he also brings poised devotion and knowledge to GRACE’s wine program. His attention to the intricacies of food-and-wine pairing matches perfectly with the passion for nuanced flavors found throughout Chef Neal Fraser’s menu.
Porto Carreiro was tapped for the position of Wine Director at GRACE in the Fall of 2004. He immediately invigorated the wine program with his passion and drive. Always looking to discover exciting wines from around the world, his aim was to not only have the perfect bottle on-hand for every dish, but to have something always available that would please both wine novices and connoisseurs alike.
Porto Carreiro joined Neal Fraser and Amy Knoll Fraser with the opening of GRACE in 2003. After less than a year of joining the team at GRACE, Porto Carreiro’s knowledge and passion for wine were recognized and he was named Assistant Wine Director and he readily immersed his energies into highlighting the perfect bottles for Fraser’s dishes.
A recent article in Calabasas Magazine stated: “Best of all, Grace’s sommelier, Eduardo Porto Carreiro, has created a wine list that could serve as an example of how fun life can be without the necessity for the vinous equivalent of a phone book.”
Porto Carreiro was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and both his mother and father were excellent cooks who instilled in him a strong foundation of quality cuisine. His father also had a great love for fine wines and shared this with his son throughout his life.
Porto Carreiro’s family moved to Vienna, Austria, when he was a young child. After living there for six years, a period in which he was exposed to most of Europe’s storied culinary cultures, his family relocated to Maryland. He grew up just outside Washington, DC, where his love for food and wine progressed. While earning a Marketing and Management degree at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Porto Carreiro also took advantage of the school’s exceptional hotel and hospitality program. He excelled in the wine appreciation classes and it became clear that wine would be a major part of his future endeavors.
Following graduation, Porto Carreiro moved to Los Angeles in 2002. His first job was as a wine clerk at the venerable Greenblatt’s Deli and Fine Wine Shop. It was there that he not only furthered his interest in wine, but more importantly, by tasting hundreds of bottles a month, Porto Carreiro developed a professional’s palate for discerning great wines from good ones.
“The true taste of a wine is much more important to me than its pedigree,” says Porto Carreiro. “Finding interesting wines that match the flavors of these wonderful dishes expands my interests and those of my guests, too.”
In addition to being the Wine Director at GRACE, Porto Carreiro is also the wine consultant for GRACE's sister restaurant, BLD. He conducts wine lectures, seminars, and has been the Guest Wine Speaker on the elegant cruise line, Crystal Cruises, and, on occasion, works with friends in the south of France leading wine tours and consulting for PersonalProvence.com. Also, finally fulfilling a long time desire, he has leveraged his passion and experience with wine to launch his own label called Angelica Cellars (www.angelicacellars.com).