Fact: Port “wine” gained its name from the Portuguese tradition of only drinking with their left hands. British sailors ferrying the stuff to the motherland witnessed these “port drinkers” and the name stuck. Ok, so that’s totally not true, however, they did first invent the wine in order to have something else to use all their cork for. As if cork shoes, cork hats, cork raincoats, cork postcards, cork sanitary products, cork prophylactics and cork cocktails weren’t enough already! Ok, so that’s obvioulsy not true either, but it’s to address such rumours as these that we headed to the home of Port, the stunning Douro Valley and the town of Porto.

After some truly, horrific driving (the roads were horrific, not the skills of the fingernail-less driver) into the Douro Valley, we stopped off at the first Quinta we could find for a tour. No expense is spared in these old Quintas who’ve made their fortune from selling a perfectly marketed product, despite there being very little reason for its existence. Whenever I asked, “why do you choose to ruin what could have ended up a perfectly good wine, by adding alcohol to make it almost intolerably strong but also sickeningly sweet?”, the answer would be , “it’s not a choice…it’s the terroir…”. “Oh ok then…thanks for the explanation, but what makes the wine in this region so perfect to be kept sweet and alcoholic?”….”….terroir…”. I should have seen that one coming. 

After the tour we savoured a number of their wines while looking over the postcard valley of the Douro. Well worth the visit, even if the wine’s not to your taste. At that point, as in Jerez, James handed the keys to Lea for the final drive to our Quinta, as we figured the best way to learn to drive on the other side of the road in a manual car is a narrow, 2-way, windy, mountain road, after a couple of port tastings where a small mistake would mean certain death.

We made it to Quinta Nova! Slightly damp through panic sweats, but we made it and we’d never felt so alert! The pictures don’t quite capture how incredible this location is, but we tried so take a look anyway. The Douro is vying for top spot in the list of most beautiful wine regions we’ve visited…and we’ve been to a couple. We even lucked out with our choice of Quinta as this one only made 10% Port (not the Port strength, but the volume of grapes destined to be fortified) and some wonderful table wines, having obviously hired a wine maker that had taken on the roads to actually get out of the valley and work somewhere else for a season or two.

Our final night in Portugal was in Porto. After visiting four of the famed Porto cellars for tours and/or tastings, and really boosting our…portfolio, we jumped straight on a boat to tour the river, passing all of the 6 bridges connecting either side of town. 6 bridges in about 2kms! Come on Portugal.  One (built by Eiffel) was no longer in action, so at least they finally realised that was a bridge too far.

Lea made the mistake of forcing James to pick a place to go for a drink, so of course, we ended up and the dingiest, dankest, but closest pub. James had Port (surprise) and Lea had a vinho branco (white wine), which she didn’t even finish!! #firsts  In fairness, I did try it, and it really did put the ranco back into Branco. Luckily, Lea chose everywhere else so we ended our time in Portugal on a high! And a glass of Port…it’s not that bad…