Douro Valley

A van picked me up early in the morning for a small group tour of the Douro Valley, where wine has been produced for at least two thousand years. As we left Porto it was cool and rainy - the van went into the almost four-mile long tunnel under Marão mountain and emerged into hot, bright sunshine - the Douro Valley. We visited Quinta da Roêda, the flagship vineyard owned by Croft, a Port house founded as a Yorkshire wine trading business in 1588, which moved into Portuguese cloth and wine trading in 17th century. Croft bought the already-existing Quinta da Roêda, in 1889, and the whole operation is now owned by the same company that makes Taylor & Fonseca port. We learned more about port production and saw the giant vats in which they still stomp the grapes at harvest time for some of the more select ports. Then we went to Pinhão to take a very relaxing ride on the Douro river on an imitation rabelo boat, the style of boat that used to be used to take the port downriver to Porto. Lunch was on a beautiful terrace at the Casa dos Barros in Sabrosa, the birthplace of Ferdinand Magellan. We finished up at the Quinta dos Castelares, a smaller winery that also produces wonderful olive oil and honey.Read more