Day 7: Tasting port wine/Vin port degustation

We seem to be in Portuguese time, going to bed late and getting up even later. This means that we tend not get out and about until around 11am. Day 7 was no exception. We left the apartment at around 11am and first stop was a coffee and Portuguese tart at a café in the square across from our apartment. We had been advised that the local church provided access to the bell tower providing a panoramic view of the city so next we went to explore that. It seemed however to be non-existant.

Naughty

It was much warmer than the previous day and was expected to reach around 28 degrees. We wandered slowly down one of the main streets heading towards a market which had been recommended. On the way Bev spied a shoe shop and before I knew it she had quickly turned right and was inspecting the shoes. It proved to be a fruitful diversion with a pair shoes selected and put aside for picking up on our way back.

It was lunchtime when we found the market. It was cute although not outstanding. There were a few stalls of interest, particularly a wine seller who was very good to speak with about his wares. He had some Douro red and white wine for a good price so I duly purchased it. It was aged wine rather then the newer wines I had seen elsewhere.

Café Majestic

There were several cafés there where we had yet another interesting meal, starting with fried sardines (sardine frites). I then had squid and Bev had fish cakes, rice and salad called bacalhau something. It was very cheap and very tasty. Further along we called in for a coffee at Café Majestic an art deco decorated place where politics and business used to be discussed. Now a tourist trap where coffee costs three times the amount you would pay in regular confeterria.

A tourist boat based on the the Port Wine transports

Cute

We then headed to the other side of the river to go to a port house. It is where all the port wine is stored before being bottled. Apparently the stable temperature makes it an ideal place to store the wine. We took the funicular to the river level and crossed the river on a very narrow footpath to the other side. While we were going across teenagers were jumping off the bridge into the river and there was another man going around trying to get money from those watching. I guess it is one form of income in a country where around 23% of youth are unemployed.

We wandered around some streets looking at the port houses but they were all the big international firms such as Sandeman, Croft, Calem and so on. Then we happened upon one called Quinta dos Corvos which is an old Portuguese company that specialises in high quality port. We got to taste their reserve port which is relatively young port and is not tawny in colour. It seems that they have to be over ten years in the barrel to be called

An example of the Port barrels

tawny. They were very nice. I asked about Late Bottled Vintage and was told that they were not up to the standard of Vintage Port but very good nonetheless with a limited ability to age further. In contrast, Vintage Port is designed to age over a long period of time and is the crème de la crème of port wine. We tried both the Tawny and the LBV. Both were stunning and the tawny was superior to a Sandeman’s tawny we had bought.

So my special wine from Portugal is a Tawny Port from Quinta dos Corvos!

As an aside, the woman serving us spoke fluent English and it turned out that she was from South Africa and had Portuguese parents who had relocated her to Portugal when she was in her late teens. She told us that English was taught from early school and then French later in their school career. I asked about Spanish and it turns out the Portuguese can understand some Spanish but the Spaniards refuse to understand any Portuguese. The Portuguese regard them as being very arrogant.