Porto Calém

Then we walked down a hill to the Port House called Calém where Doug had pre arranged a tour for us to go on. The house was busy but we noted there were open spots for the next English tour. The displays were excellent, the tour worthwhile and the cellars were impressive with the oak barrels holding about 15,000 bottles of port wine each.

We enjoyed the tour and tried to sort out the differences between types of port (its complicated!). Basically White (white grapes only, Rose, used as an aperitif and for cocktails), Ruby (blended, oak or stainless vats; does not age after bottling), and Tawny (keeps aging in the bottle indefinitely getting lighter as it goes) and then one that is produced from one grape only if there is an exceptional year for that. The oldest bottles they have date to 1870 (not for sale!).

After the tour we did the “chocolate and port tasting” and again decided of the three offered we liked the 10 year old tawny the best and paired with milk chocolate in particular. We bought a ½ bottle to enjoy during our four night stay upcoming in Lisbon.Read more