For The Love Of Port

i will be going to Porto again. for work this time, a dance performance in Matosinhos. https://www.festivalddd.com/en/event/inaudible/ )
So i plan to stick around a bit longer and go for a small vacation from the 6th until my flight back home on the 11th.

Now i'm looking for recommendations on what to do. And as you might have guessed; port wine will be the main theme. In Gaia i've been to Taylors, Noval, Kopke, Cockburn and Croft. Graham's is on the wishlist

I've visited Bomfim and Panascal before and followed the Douro by car. But never went by boat or train. (maybe a better option than renting a car?) Never stayed or had dinner at a Quinta either.

My favorite ports are LBV's and vintage so if i can visit and taste at properties i would like to focus on those. Niepoort, Vieira De Sousa, Noval and Crasto come to mind but i'm open to whatever is possible as it is quite late to book i guess.

So. What would YOU do?

Graham's in VndG is definitely worth a stop. Even as a single tourist you can taste a bunch of good stuff, and the restaurant is very good.

I've been up the Douro by train and boat, and these are good relaxing ways to see the scenery. The problem is that once you are up there, it isn't so easy to get around. If you want to visit multiple places, that will be more difficult.

Niepoort, Vieira De Sousa, Noval and Crasto

Niepoort has multiple properties. I don't think they have lodging at any of them. But Quinta da Napoles has a visitor area and is just up the road from Quinta de Tedo, which is set up for tourists, even with lodging as I recall. Viera da Sousa is great, but I think they just host organized groups. Likewise for Noval. Crasto is at a beautiful spot and has lodging. If it were me and I were on my own, I would definitely look into Crasto and Tedo. Oh, and if money weren't an issue, I'd fly up to Crasto in a helicopter and hang out there for a day or two.

i'm just wondering if it would be better to rent a car or to go by train and get around with taxi's for 3 days. does anyone have experience getting around in the douro without a car?

there's no hotels available in Pinhao so it will be Lamego or Tua if i need to be close to a train station.

Bert VD wrote:i'm just wondering if it would be better to rent a car or to go by train and get around with taxi's for 3 days. does anyone have experience getting around in the douro without a car?

there's no hotels available in Pinhao so it will be Lamego or Tua if i need to be close to a train station.

Taxis aren't cheap but generally pretty easy to get and use in the Douro. Unless recently started, there is no Uber up in the Douro. If drinking you don't want to try to drive those very narrow steep curvy roads.

For hotels, you most likely will have to use a third party booking site. As only a few have their own websites. One word of advice, their distance to city centers are not always accurate so make sure you check to see how far they are from where you'll need to go.


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so i will stay in Porto on the 6th and 7th. then on the 8th i'll take a rental car to Provesende so i can stay between the vinyards until the 11th.

i'm still very much open to suggestions on what quinta's or other sights to visit while i'm there.

Bert VD wrote:so i will stay in Porto on the 6th and 7th. then on the 8th i'll take a rental car to Provesende so i can stay between the vinyards until the 11th.

i'm still very much open to suggestions on what quinta's or other sights to visit while i'm there.

You're not too far from Quinta d. Portal.

Quinta Do Tedo for lunch at their Bistro (love it) and also wine tasting.

Quinta d. Roeda, Q.d. Seixo, Q.d. Carvalhas (take the trip up to the top, views are killer good)

A little drive west on the same side of the river as Provesende is Q.d. Crasto and Quinta Nova.

first day of my vacation!

i'm in a hotel very close to the train station called Peninsular. it's very basic and in need of a big renovation since the seventies or longer i guess. but i don't need more and i love the Art Deco interior and furniture. i think it's all original from the time when this was an fancy hotel.

first i went to visit the Ramos Pinto lodge. i asked if there was the possibility to choose different wines to taste after the tour (even just one LBV instead of the white and tawny reserva would have been good for me) but the answer was no. it's nice to see the old office and the cellar but i didn't really enjoy the tasting.

i went for a walk and tasted Vargellas 2015 at Taylor's, continued my way and searched for where i thought Quevedo was but it was Santa Eufemia. i went in but kind of lost my interest and left again. behind the corner i saw a logo i recognized from my visit to the Douro in 2015: the crows of Quinta Dos Corvos. i joined the French tour that just started and finished with a tasting again. it's a small tour in a small lodge but with the tasting it's quite OK. i had 2 red wines (a 2011 that was 2 years in cask and a 2012 that was 1 year in cask. i prefered the 2012), a 2013 LBV and again a white port that i gave away. then i payed extra for a 2014 vintage that blew the LBV away. i'm still thinking of getting a bottle.

next door is Augusto's port. this is a company i've never heard of but i was a bit saturated and in need of a meal. maybe i'll go there tomorrow.
right at the river is a small restaurant hidden in plain sight filled with locals and a few tourists; Casa Adao. i got exactly what i expect: the food is simple and nice, not expensive and the service is good.

at this point i also decided i probably won't take any tours at the lodges anymore. it just doesn't make sense to drink wines you don't like.
to be honest, anyone on this forum can guide those tours... and probably better
so at Graham's tomorrow i guess i'll skip the tour and just taste what i want.

on my way back to the hotel i stopped at Portologia for one last glass of vintage port. i had the Quinta Da Prelada 2008 and while it was not bad, the 2014 Corvos i had earlier was far more balanced and elegant. oh and there was a Quevedo crusted on the shelf that i might pick up tomorrow...


(oh and the fish restaurants in Matosinhos are heaven!)

Sounds like you're having lots of fun. Thanks for the recap and I look forward to the next installment!

at Cabaz Do Infante ,the messy looking wine shop/supermarket downtown where every tourist passes by (they also own the fancy looking Socalcos further down the street) the Quevedo crusted was less than 17€. if my luggage real estate wasn't so precious i would have bought more than 1 bottle.
i'm heading out for lunch and Graham's!

it turns out you need to make a reservation for a tasting at Graham's. luckily i got in but had to wait almost 2 hours. i spent that time on the terrace overlooking the park next door and the river having an orange juice. (has anyone been in that park? it looks pretty wild with no way in)
as a tour is included in the tasting i went for it anyway... it wasn't bad

i chose the vintage tasting and got the 1983, 2000 and 2007 VP in a fancier room. i prefered the smell of the 2000 as it seemed fuller than the 2007 while still having more fruit than the 1983. but when it comes to taste the 2000 and 2007 are very close and the colour is nearly identical. being unfamiliar with Graham's i noticed these three wines have a very consistent style. the 83 is definitely more mature but fits perfectly in line with the others.
today i've learned Graham's has a style of vintage port that i like less than DOW's or Cockburn (to stick with Symington ports).

not so long ago i was looking for 1958 ports (in another topic) and Graham's came up. well, today i saw their 'vault' with the family collection of bottles that are not for sale and the largest amount in that cellar was Malvedos 1958. so that's where they are

on the way back i passed by Corvos again to pick up that bottle of 2014 VP. the guide welcomed me back and i went on to the shop. sadly they don't give the discount (the price of the tour is deducted from the wine you buy) if you wait a day. i wasn't too happy about that. so i had a cheap dinner to keep the finances balanced...

i have photo's but i'm too tired for that now, you'll get them later

Bert VD wrote:it turns out you need to make a reservation for a tasting at Graham's.

D'oh! Very good to know, thank you.
(I was there last year, but Lisa Stevens made the arrangements, so I didn't think about that.)

It is getting harder and harder to put together a couple of good tastings in Porto without knowing somebody and arranging for something in private. It is a good thing you never made it to Augustus, since they are basically the same family and what I feel are the exact same wines, even though they deny it, as Corvos. They even have the exact same printed menus, with Augustus pasted over the top, but if you peel back the label, it says Corvus underneath. :)

Grahams can be fun, but a bit expensive for a tasting. If you like tawneys, you can get a really nice tasting at Kopke. Vic and I had a decent tasting at Cockburn last year, but had to finagle it on the fly and thankfully found an employee who was interested in helping us get a better tasting than they normally give once I dropped Roy's name. :)

Sounds like you had fun just exploring, which is a good part of the fun in Porto.

-Lisa

lot's of things to tell! but first some pictures of what i already mentioned...
we start in Matosihnos at the ocean, with seafood just hiding in crevices between the rocks. and also the view from my hotel in Porto. (some pictures were made with my phone and aren't that great but my good camera has a narrow lens. choices )

and then the lovely inside of the hotel in Art Deco and some Portuguese and colonial style mixed in. (i wouldn't recommend it to anyone though)
it's the hallway and a separate lounge area.

then on to Gaia Ramos Pinto's cellar with the research bottles. as i understand it they made an extensive research on ports from single grape varieties to find out what suited them best. this cellar is a kind of historic artefact that holds that stock. Gaia street art

at Graham's in the tasting room if only that would be a daily thing... what's available

then i drove a rental car to Provesende to stay in the guesthouse of Jet and Ronald. (they used to manage the guest house of Quinta Do Passadouro in the past. Check their website at douropass.com )
it is a very nice renovated village house with several studio's. and i could have sworn that when i got there it even smelled like wine. Ronald is very passionate about ports and Douro wines and i felt right at home.
this is the view from the terrace i arrived in the house around noon and had planned to visit Vieira De Sousa a bit later on the same day. what i didn't know was that they had called Ronald to ask if he had any guests wanting to visit the house as well because they had this Belgian who wanted to come over.
so the 'other visitors' i had heard about and the 'Belgian guy' they had heard about ended up staing in the same place.

we were welcomed by Maria Borges who showed us the vinyard right next to the house and then we went inside to discover this wonderful place where time seemed to have stopped. the majestic entrance hall with staircases, the lagares and stock room, the beautifully painted ceilings upstairs... i could spent much more time watching all the objects and details of this place... it's also worth noting that the wine stock is very different from what you see in the lodges in Gaia. it's not this sterile environment for tourists. the old barrels actually look as old as they are. this place is 'real' with cobwebs and everything that comes with it.

we moved to the balcony overlooking the garden to taste some of the wines. the red and white Alice, 10 year old white port and 2012 LBV. the latter being absolutely delicious. here at the table we found out i wasn't the only member of this forum in the group. Paul C. Metman had been reading this topic before my arrival at Provesende and suddenly realized it was me writing this and sitting in front of him at the table.
Ronald as well as Paul made the conversations at the tasting quite entertaining and interesting. i drink to learn we decended back to the stock room and Maria explained the old whites were never intended to be sold as white ports but they were meant to be blended in the creation of tawny ports as well as to be consumed by the family. but none of the barrels in this particular room have been used in any blend before. these are 'raw' ingredients waiting for their moment to shine. and we got to taste a 40 year old white straight from one of these barrels.

in the evening back at the guest house we were treated with a wonderful meal and copious amounts of wine. Ronald kept on bringing out new bottles to discover.
i don't remember all of them but i can tell you there were 2 that i liked the most; an 1995 LBV and a Touriga Franca 2013. both Passadouro.
there was also a 1995 Quinta Do Junco VP. can you add more to the list Paul?

all the wine made me forget to make photo's so here's one from an older vinyard that i passed by today

thanks to some name dropping by e-mail (thanks Frederick Blais!) i got an invitation to visit Quinta Do Napoles today.
i showed up right in time and couldn't find anyone around
but not so long after i was greeted by Gabriela who gave me an informative tour of the winery. we were soon joined by a couple from Maryland and one of the Niepoort distributors for a tasting and lunch. paired with white port, Vinho Verde, Dao, Batuta 2015, Charme 2014, Colheita 1997 and a few more wines that i can't remember. (i'm bad at taking notes ) i was a big fan of the Charme...
Recently i read that among all the other experiments Dirk was working on a beer. So i brought hime one of the best Belgian beers; a 75cL Gouden Carolus Triple. (He wasn’t around but i’m sure he’ll enjoy it soon enough)

on the way back i stopped at Pinhao for a little walk and couldn't resist tasting another glass at Bomfim: the DOW Senhora Da Ribeira 2015 VP. a peppery bomb that i liked very much. i also got a little sip of 1995 Vesuvio because i didn't really know the Vesuvio style of VP's.
there is obviously quite a difference in age between these to ports but style wise i noticed cinnamon and many more spices in the Vesuvio. i think it's equally a big port but with more complexity and i must say i prefer the simpler DOW.