THE PORT IN PORTO

The drive to Porto was pleasant and relaxing. We passed by olive tree farms, vineyards, cork trees, and eucalyptus trees. We reached Porto and saw the beautiful pastel-shaded buildings and the bridges of Duoro, a major river of the Iberian Peninsula.

 We stepped out of the bus to a lovely day; a comfortable weather that I guessed could have been 75 degrees Fahrenheit. A winery employee met us and introduced us to our guide. The guide showed us the old winery, now converted to a museum. Here we heard about Enrique who started his winery business at the age of twenty-one. Our guide said that Enrique was ahead of his time. His marketing strategy was of 20^th century approach. I was impressed by what I heard of his business acumen. Then the guide ushered us to the cellar and there we saw numerous barrels of wine. She took us to an underground lobby called the cave', a cordial, cozy tasting room where we tasted fine Port. We tasted young Port (Port Verde) and medium Port. I thought young Port tasted better. In a few minutes, she ushered us to a room where we watched a slide show of the way port was prepared.

According to the history of Port wine making, production traced back to the 17^th century when Britain was at war with France and the supply of good French wine to Britain through Portugal was not available, and the British needed a better quality wine than those red wines found the Douro Valley.

Port is a sweet red grape wine, fortified with brandy, not the commercial brandy but with aguardente, a neutral grape spirit. Adding aguardente stopped the fermentation thus making the wine sweeter but full-bodied due to the increased alcohol content being up to 19.5 or 20%.

Here are a few lessons on Port Wine that I extracted from Wikipedia:

The two broad categories of Portugal Ports are those matured in wooden barrels that allow a small amount of exposure to oxygen and those that have matured in sealed glass bottles with no exposure to air. Those aged in barrels mature through "oxidative" aging while those in glass bottles mature through "reductive" aging. Wine aged in wooden barrels leave a viscous taste to the palate while those aged in glass bottles are smoother.

Barrel-aged ports are called Tawny port, such as Colheita (col-YATE-a), and Garrafeira.  A Tawny port came from red grapes aged by exposing them to gradual oxidation and evaporation in wooden barrels. These wooden barrels gave them the "nutty" flavor. Wine enthusiasts typically consume Tawny Port as a dessert wine and as either sweet or medium dry. Port is assumed to have spent at least two years in barrels unless the bottle indicates its age. Indicated age such as 10, 20, 30, and over 40, does not mean the actual age, but indicates the target age profile for the ports. However, most people mistake this as the minimum average age of the blend. Colheita, although is a kind of port where the actual vintage year is mentioned, should be distinguished from Vintage port. A Vintage port is one that was bottled about 18 months after being harvested and one, which will continue to mature after being bottled. Colheita on the other hand may have been in barrels for more than 20 years before being bottled and sold. A Garrafeira is a rare intermediate vintage dated style of Port. It uses both the oxidative aging of years in wood—between three and six years—and the further reductive aging in glass demijohns—eight years of more—before bottling.

Examples of bottle-aged ports are Ruby port, Reserve, Pink port and White port, late Bottled Vintage (LBV), Crusted, Vintage port, and Single Quinta Vintage Port. Of all the Ports, Ruby port is one extensively produced. It is a product of grape fermentation in tanks made of concrete or stainless steel. These tanks prevent oxidation and preserve its rich claret color. The port does not generally improve with age. Reserve port is a premium Ruby as approved by the IVDP's tasting panel. Pink port is made from the same grapes as those for making vintage, tawny and ruby ports the only difference is that it is fermented the way a rose wine is. It has the hallmarks of a light ruby containing a fruity flavor. White port is made from white grapes, although if matured for long periods, the color darkens eventually reaching to a point where it would be hard to distinguish whether the wine was originally red or white. It can also vary from dry to very sweet. Late Bottled Vintage is originally destined to be a Vintage port but was left in the barrel longer due to lack of demand. It is lighter bodied than the vintage one. Crusted port is usually a blend of several vintages and will improve with age. Vintage port is made only from grapes of a declared vintage year, as declared by each individual port house.

After our wine tasting and tour, we headed across the street that was along the riverbank, back-dropped by beautiful, colorful houses or apartments looking like being stuck together. From the street we saw Rabelos, a type of boat used to transport port down the River Douro. These barrels of Port are headed for storage in caves at Vila Nova de Gaia near Porto.

 After a relaxing few minutes, we headed for our hotel. There was no time to explore Porto. We missed visiting the Porto Cathedral, one of the oldest surviving structures and other tourist attractions such as the Palacio da Bolsa, the Palacio de Cristal, and the tile-adorned Sao Bento Train Station.

We stayed at Vila Gale Porto Hotel and had dinner there. We slept relatively early this time, in contrast to the night before. It was a peaceful night, a good one that we needed to unwind and get ready for the three-hundred-sixty-one-mile ride to Leon, with a two-hour stop at Santiago de Compostela.