Book Recommendations

[R. McNamara]

What book/books would you folks recommend specifically about Port?

I'm looking more for information on the wines and less for history at this point.

Thanks,
Rourke

[Jason Brandt Lewis]

Richard Mayson's Port and the Douro is my "go to" book. New hardback, published in 2005; paperbook is from 2000.

[Ronald Wortel]

I'll second that suggestion. It's the most complete and up-to-date book you'll find. Moreover, it's a great read.

[alec]

I've got three books I turn to. The first book I pick up is The Port Companion by Godfrey Spence. ISBN: 0028617819 To be fair, I've owned this book the longest which is probably why it's my first choice. While it does give some info on individual ports, it's main strongpoint is the reviews of the port houses. Published 1997.

ICEP (The Portuguese Trade Commission) sent me a lovely book called Vintages of the Century. It was published June 1999 and thereby omits 1997 thru 2000, but it's a phenominal guide to a LOT of ports from 1900 to 1996. The interesting thing is that instead of the reviews coming from Parker or Broadbent or other critics, the reviews are from the Port houses themselves. It's a refreshing perspective. It's formatted in a "coffee table book" style (a little chic) but is really helpful nonetheless. ISBN: 9728233124 In both Portuguese and English; this printing was limited to 500 copies and I'm betting it's expensive. But wholly worth it.

Lastly there's the Wine Spectator's Guide to Vintage Port by James Suckling. Publushed in 1990, it's a bit outdated but has some neat stuff in it such as Price Performance Charts for various houses at auction. It also includes a lot of detail about a lot of ports, though mostly older vintages given it's publication date.

What I can't find are any decent books on taking a trip to the douro... Does anyone know of any maps outlining where all the different Quintas are? If I wanted to do a road trip I'd want this kind of info, and I cannot find it anywhere. Perhaps this should be a new thread....

--A

[Jason Brandt Lewis]

No road trips without appointments . . . only a handful of quintas are open to the public on a casual, "drop in" basis and most of these all have websites.

[Ronald Wortel]

Alec: finding good maps is very difficult. I know the Symingtons have made a map that show all the quintas belonging to the family, supplying grapes to the family and a few important others they could not deny.

Probably the best option is to buy army maps; they are very detailed and show most roads, trails and quintas. The problem here is that they are not always completely accurate, and sometimes outdated.

Hope this helps.

[alec]

Thanks, that does help. I guess there's no demand if the quintas are on an visit by appointment basis only. That's kinda sad; I pictured it working like California where you can just drive in. (A lot of places in CA are like that at least).

So what about Villa Nova de Gaia? Can you walk into any of the lodges or is that by appointment only too? Does anyone know anything about buying port from the lodges themselves? What's the discount (if any)?

Thanks!
--A

[Ronald Wortel]

Most lodges welcome visitors, but not all. Take a look athttp://www.infoportwine.com and click on "round trip" for some good information.

BTW: It's well worth the trouble to try and make some appointments at quintas. A good number of quintas is part of the "port wine route". See the link below for info and reservations.

http://www.ivdp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=23 ... 5&idioma=1

If you want to visit a quinta that is not part of the route, just call or e-mail directly and see what you can do. My experience is that most quintas welcome interested tourists, and take a fair amount of time to show you around and let you taste some nice stuff.

[Ronald Wortel]

Oh, and forget about the discounts at the lodges: I found that a lot of prices are even way higher than what I pay here.

I did get some good discounts at quintas though.