{"id":849,"date":"2017-12-31T18:09:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-31T18:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=849"},"modified":"2017-12-31T18:09:42","modified_gmt":"2017-12-31T18:09:42","slug":"porto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=849","title":{"rendered":"Porto"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the north of Portugal you\u2019ll find the city of Porto, on the northern shore of the Douro River, where it debouches into the Atlantic.\u00a0 The city\u2019s name has an interesting history.\u00a0 On the southern shore there is today a town called Vila Nova de Gaia, but it Roman times it was Gallia.\u00a0 As the town prospered, the Lusitanians (as the Portuguese were then known) needed more room, so they built a port, or portum<\/em> in Latin, on the north shore \u2013 contemporary Porto.\u00a0 Today the country takes its name from these twin cities: Portum + Gallia = Portugal.<\/p>\n

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Porto as seen from Vila Nova de Gaia.\u00a0 Photo courtesy of the Boston Globe.<\/em><\/p>\n

And as wine lovers know, it also gave its name to a wine we call Port.\u00a0 That fact alone makes Porto worth visiting, but it has many other attractions as well.\u00a0 Among these are the Cathedral, the Eiffel bridge (same architect as Paris\u2019 tower) also known as the Luis I, the Clerigos Tower and the Douro Waterfront.\u00a0 While there is much excellent dining around the city, a particular favorite is on the waterfront, the wonderfully named La Case da Filha da Mae Preta or The House of Black Mae\u2019s Daughter.\u00a0 If you go, order the giant prawns in garlic sauce; they\u2019re not on the menu but it\u2019s the best dinner you can have there.<\/p>\n

And of course, there\u2019s Port to be tasted.\u00a0 When you check into a hotel, after you sign the register, they hand you a glass of Port.\u00a0 Now, that\u2019s civilized!<\/p>\n

The wine is pressed upriver and shipped in tanker trucks to the wineries, or lodges as they are known there in Vila Nova de Gaia.\u00a0 [In the past they came down river on boats called rabelos<\/em>.\u00a0 These can still be seen in the river near the south shore, but are no longer in use.]\u00a0 In Gaia, they are aged in casks, barrels or bottles, depending on the style of wine.\u00a0 You can taste away at the Instituto do Vinho do Porto, which is the counterpart of the solara<\/em> or tasting room in Lisbon.<\/p>\n

If you are on the Porto side in the evening, you will see the Gaia hillside light up with enormous signs of all the Port houses you ever heard of\u2026and a few you haven\u2019t.\u00a0 Many of them have tours and tastings, during the day of course.\u00a0 Perhaps the best tour is at Sandeman\u2019s which is also the easiest to reach.\u00a0 There is a small bridge (not the high Eifel one) that you can walk across the Douro.\u00a0 Turn right on the Gaia side and Sandeman is a few hundred feet down the road.\u00a0 You\u2019ll get a great view of Porto as well.\u00a0 Your tour will explain the differences among dry, ruby, tawny, colheita<\/em>, LBV and vintage ports and then you\u2019ll get to taste some of them.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Monaloca.<\/em><\/p>\n

Other lodges are less easy to reach but the consensus position is that the wines are better.\u00a0 Each has certain attractions.\u00a0 Ramos Pinto has a museum of their history.\u00a0 Calem, one of Lucie\u2019s favorite Ports, offers a fado<\/em> (Portuguese blues) performance along with your tour.\u00a0 The more famous names, such as Grahams and Taylor Fladgate, focus pretty much only on the wines.\u00a0 Many require appointments.\u00a0 Some have restaurants.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good idea to read up before you go wine tasting there.<\/p>\n

Another good idea is to remember that Port\u00a0 is a fortified wine, meaning that it is enriched with neutral grain brandy.\u00a0 That makes it quite alcoholic, typically 20% or more.\u00a0 That\u2019s less than in whiskey but a heck of a lot more than in table wine.\u00a0 So don\u2019t plan too many tastings in one day.\u00a0 Enjoy the beauty of your surroundings so you get the most out of Porto and its twin city, Vila Nova de Gaia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the north of Portugal you\u2019ll find the city of Porto, on the northern shore of the Douro River, where it debouches into the Atlantic.\u00a0 The city\u2019s name has an interesting history.\u00a0 On the southern shore there is today a town called Vila Nova de Gaia, but it Roman times it was Gallia.\u00a0 As the … Continue reading Porto<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}