#65 Walking and Tasting Porto
My Trip to Portugal Part 4
Something really nice happened on our last day of sailing westward towards Porto. The sun came out and it was warm enough to sit out on deck. Watching the world go by while sitting on deck is one of the great pleasures of river cruising and we had been somewhat limited by cold and rainy weather on our Douro River cruise.
We woke up back at our docking point in Gaia. After breakfast, with a short bus ride across the Douro River, we were in downtown Porto ready to start our walking tour of the city. This hilly city is Portugal’s second largest with several distinct districts to visit. We started our tour in the central market Mercado do Bolhao and walked past the Lello Bookstore where it is rumored that JK Rowling visited and got inspiration for the library staircase at Hogwarts. Hundreds of people queue up around the block to gain entrance to see the ornate wooden structure.
Church in Porto photo by Joan Naidorf
We made our way past mosaic-laden churches to the Sao Bento Train Station. The busy train station dates from 1903 and the lobby gives an extensive history lesson. Over 20,000 tiles were commissioned to tell the history of Portugal. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is crowded with both tourist groups and commuters.
Alley in Porto Photo by Joan Naidorf
From the station, we walked downward to the historical center and the Cathedral of Porto, very close to the walls that once protected the city. The building looks a bit like a fortress with construction beginning during the twelfth century. It was rebuilt and renovated numerous times throughout the centuries which explains why the Cathedral is a mix of architectural styles: Baroque, Romanesque and its cloister and one of the chapels are Gothic in style.
From the Cathedral, we made our way to cross the upper deck of the Luis I Bridge over the Douro River and back to Gaia. From there we took a cable car ride down to the dockside area. We had a tour and tasting of the Calem Port wine house arranged. That company has constructed a small museum with English labelling and informative displays. The barrels pictured here are the size used to store and age Tawny Port.
Tawny Port Barrels photo by Joan Naidorf
Later that afternoon, we had a special treat planned for us. We had known for many years that a distant relative of our friend, John Symington, had made his way from Scotland to Porto in the late 1800’s. In 1882, Andrew James Symington sailed from Scotland to Porto to work for the Graham family, which was already established as a Port wine producer since 1820. Andrew left the company to establish his own very large Port Wine producing company and his two grandsons his grandsons acquired the company from the Graham family in 1970 when it was offered for sale. From the company website:
“After almost 50 years of dedicated management and care by the Symington family, Graham's is now a global brand that ships to over 80 countries and appears in many of the world's top restaurants and fine wine merchants…The Graham's 1890 Lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia is a state-of-the-art visitor centre that ranks amongst the top wine tourism experiences in Portugal. It contains 15,000 seasoned oak casks, some over a hundred years old, and has cellars containing bottles of rare Vintage Port from every decade since the 1890s. It is also the home of a new restaurant, Vinum, dedicated to the union of gastronomy and fine wine.”
View of the Douro in Porto photo by Joan Naidorf
With a well-placed email request to Patriarch Rupert Symington, we were on the list for a special tour and wine tasting. I have included a picture here of our guide standing in front of one of the enormous wooden casks used to store and age Ruby and vintage port. The private family collection features the dust and cobwebs right out of central wine cellar casting. Some of Andrew Symington’s original(filled) Port casks are here on display. It’s a veritable Port wine museum.
The guide at Graham’s in front of the Massive Ruby Port Barrels
photo by Joan Naidorf
We were ushered to a stately wood decorated library for our special tasting. We enjoyed pours from four different styles and vintages with a lovely cheese plate. Very close to where we were sitting, the company proudly displays the framed picture and receipt of purchase from Winston Churchill, a devoted customer and consumer of the family Port. Through the well-stocked company store, we ordered a case of the very special Quinta de Vesuvio 1995 vintage to be shipped home to Virginia. From the company website:
“When our family acquired Quinta do Vesuvio in 1989 we decided to maintain the traditional granite lagares in which the grapes are trodden by foot, a centuries-old winemaking method that produces very high-quality Port, as shown by Vesuvio's outstanding Vintage Ports.”
Fine Port Tasting at Graham’s
What a special remembrance of our beautiful trip to Portugal this wine will be when we enjoy it at home over the next several years. We walked down the hill and back to the ship for a very special final dinner on the AMADouro. The chef paired special courses with the finest wines that the winemakers had shipped from Messina-Hof in Texas. This was easily the finest meal that we had on the ship and we enjoyed it with our new-found wine-loving friends. The Texas wines showed well and even made us eat some of our unkind words about wines from Texas.
We had to turn in early for packing and the dreaded early wake-up call for our airport transfer. Our magical 11 days in Portugal had come to a boozy end. Its quite easy to see why Portugal has become such a popular tourist destination over the last two years. Many retirees flock there to take advantage of the reasonable prices, ease of entering the national health system, and attractive taxation laws. The tourist infrastructure has improved and some places are so successful, they are becoming overcrowded. I recommend scheduling in the shoulder seasons and enjoying all that Portugal has to offer.
