Portugal - the Douro Valley

So far autumn in Porto has been unseasonably sunny and warm. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather for a mid-week train trip up the Douro Valley to see the vineyards.

After a scenic two-hour ride, we arrived in the small town of Pinhão, where wine is a way of life.

Our first stop was tour and tasting at Quinta do Bomfim, which is owned by an English family (Symington). The grapes here are used to make port wine sold under the Dow brand name. The winery is located right in town with beautiful views of the Douro River. The Douro Valley is a UNESCO world heritage site. Wine has been produced here for centuries, and the highly-regulated region is the only place in the world where Port wine is produced. The Portuguese pride themselves on conserving the area and preserving the heritage of their winemaking traditions.

Here is a quick summary of how port wine is made: after harvest the grapes are crushed and fermented, then combined with a distilled grape spirit (like a brandy) to stop the fermentation. This leaves some of the sugar in the wine and produces a sweeter wine that is fortified, meaning that it is stronger than typical red or white wine. Various types of port are aged in different ways. A ruby port will be aged in the huge oak barrels to limit contact with the oak and air, whereas a tawny port will be aged in smaller barrels for many years -- oxygenation and contact with the oak will produce a lighter reddish-orange colored wine that can age in the barrel for many decades before being bottled.

Of course the tour isn't complete until you've had a chance to sample the wines.

The grapes are usually harvested anytime from late September to October, so we missed out on the action of watching the harvest and the crush. Instead we get to enjoy the gorgeous fall colors here -- the vines are various shades of red, orange, and yellow, and the foliage on the trees is truly spectacular.

After sampling several great wines, we took a tour further upriver on one of the historic rabelo boats. These are the boats that were traditionally used to bring barrels of wine down into Porto to be aged in the caves. Now they are used to ferry tourists up and down the river to see the vineyards and scenery.

Some of the properties are newer while others look like they have been there for hundreds of years.

We stayed one night in Pinhão, at the fabulous Vintage Hotel right on the river. In the morning, the entire river was covered in a thick blanket of fog that slowly burned off as the sun came out.

We had scheduled one more tour and tasting before we had to catch our train - at the Quinta de la Rosa about a twenty minute walk from town (uphill -- soooo many hills here in Portugal!).

Of course the steep walk meant a spectacular view back to Pinhão from the tasting room. Here are two glasses of port wine -- on the left you can see the light rich color of the tawny port, while the ruby port on the right is a bolder deep red color.

After consuming a few tasting glasses of port, at least our walk back to the train station was all downhill, and very scenic. We had a nice lunch outside in the sunshine before catching our train back to Porto.