Douro Valley Wine Tour

One cold wet day we took one of the popular Douro Valley Wine Tasting tours. The sun made brief appearances between showers, and the temperature hovered around the high 40's which is very cold for people who live in Hawaii. We were just happy there wasn't much wind. Our guide, Marcello, picked us up at the hotel, and we joined the other tour participants - a young couple from Wales. The drive to the first winery was about 1-1/2 hours from Porto so we made a brief stop in the pretty little town of Peso da Régua.

Our next stop was the Quinta do Panascal Estate, home of the Fonesca Winery. The final climb to the estate is up an incredibly steep, exceedingly narrow road. Fortunately, Marcello's driving skills were as impressive as the view from the patio.

The pictures in the tour advertisement showed people actually walking through the vineyard, but we didn't do that, possibly because of the inclement weather or possibly it was too early in the season.

These are the vats where the grapes are crushed and the huge barrels where the wine is aged. Fonesca is well-known for its port wines.

On days with more pleasant weather, the tastings are probably held outside, but our tasting was held indoors.

We sampled three types of port at this tiny table sitting on miniature stools. It was a bit of a challenge at 10:30 AM, but Walt and I were up to it, and, amazingly, no glasses fell to the floor. The young couple only drank about half of their port, so we were feeling good about ourselves.

One final picture from the patio.

We drove a short distance to the town of Pinhão where we joined a rather rowdy group of people for a 1 hour sail up the Douro River. The other group continued to drink copious amounts of wine for the duration of the cruise. Walt and I hung out in the bow as much as possible until the rain drove us inside.

The boat we were on looked pretty much like the one pictured on the left.

We enjoyed our sail up the river and back.

Our next stop was a lookout point with an impressive view of the town of Pinhão.

Then we drove on to lunch at the Casa dos Barros Winery Lodge. What a gorgeous old building!

We had pork with mushroom risotto. A glass of red wine and a glass of white was offered along with the meal. And, of course, a small glass of port was presented with dessert. Fortunately, we were also given a small shot of very strong espresso.

Conversation during the meal was lively. Our Portuguese guide expressed a great affinity for the British because apparently they helped to promote Portuguese wines over French wines back in the 1700's. The Welsh couple bemoaned the loss of European union money for large development projects due to Brexit. I always find it interesting to listen to conversations between people from different countries. In spite of their young ages, the Welsh couple had traveled a lot and lived and worked in several different countries and Marcello was hoping to travel through parts of the U.S.

All too soon, it was time to move on to our second winery tasting at Quinta dos Castelares, which produces table wines. The winery representative was an amusing man who led us through several large drafty rooms in a building that dates back to the early 1600's. The rain fell in earnest as we sampled a white, a rose, and a red. They were all delicious although everyone particularly liked the rose. We also sampled 3 types of olive oil and 3 types of honey. He kept offering more wine, but we had all had enough. This is the view from one of the winery windows.

Some of us fell asleep on the long drive back to Porto, but amazingly, I did not.