For The Love Of Port

so i'm off to Portugal again to help my friend working on his house near Tabua.
(he moved there with his wife to rent out vacation cottages but ended up alone with no income so me and other friends from Belgium try to help out as much as we can. renovating the place so he can start renting it out as soon as possible)
since he's never been to the Douro valley i suggested we drive from the airport in Porto to spend an afternoon and evening there before heading to his place.

if you've seen some of my photo reports here you know i have visited multiple wineries there already but now the goal is to give someone a first experience of the Douro on a low budget. what would you do?

Bert
What part of the Douro will you be near/around? That would help narrow down some choices.

It will just be a road trip coming from Porto. I made a reservation to visit Alves De Sousa and then we’ll go to Pinhao. Then maybe just a drive up river to see more of the landscape..

Bert VD wrote:It will just be a road trip coming from Porto. I made a reservation to visit Alves De Sousa and then we’ll go to Pinhao. Then maybe just a drive up river to see more of the landscape..

I like Ponte Romantica in Pinhao. More of a locals place as it’s just far enough away from the city center. Good food and prices.


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thanks!

i can recommend a visit to Alves De Sousa's Quinta da Gaivosa to anyone going to the Douro. one of the most informative visits i've ever had. and their modern winery is small but impressive in how well they thought of every single detail. everything tells you how passionate the family is about their wines. from the vines to the special lagares designed by Tiago himself.

it's the first time i had any of their wines and it was a great experience. lovely Douro wines in very distinct styles that were surprising for me as i could not really find many similarities with other wines that i've tried. the Caldas white port is also the very first white port that i actually liked. it looks like an old white but the color comes from the grape skins. again, they really came up with their own style and in my opinion they nailed it. i left with a bottle of Caldas white and a 2015 Alves De Sousa VP.

we then drove to Pinhao, walked around a bit during sunset and had a lovely dinner at the restaurant next to the road that leads to Quinta da Roêda. fresh pike from the river :)

Hi Bert, see you are (were) in the Douro again and made an interesting visit. What's the name of the restaurant you mentioned. End of May my wife and I will be in Provesende again for some days (you know where ). Any chance of seeing you then?

hey Paul, the restaurant is Casa do Escritor. it's simple but nice and they are super friendly.
i'm not sure where i will be at the end of may. april-june will be quite busy at work traveling to Budapest, Potsdam, Cyprus, Lille...

now i'm pruning and planting olive trees, cork oak and fruit trees. and enjoying some time away from everything in nature

Bert VD wrote:hey Paul, the restaurant is Casa do Escritor. it's simple but nice and they are super friendly.
)

Does this place also have a wine shop attached or part of it? If so, how was it (if you checked it out that is)?

i didn't see a wine shop. we didn't go inside either but had dinner on the terrace behind the building. i also had the feeling we were the only tourists in Pinhao at that time

Bert VD wrote:i didn't see a wine shop. we didn't go inside either but had dinner on the terrace behind the building. i also had the feeling we were the only tourists in Pinhao at that time

Hah! quite the change from the summer time when the city is now packed with tourists from the cruise ships....I like the older days when it was not so crowded.

On a side note, I do hope they start regulating the cruise ships up river, it really is getting out of hand.

Andy Velebil wrote:

Bert VD wrote:hey Paul, the restaurant is Casa do Escritor. it's simple but nice and they are super friendly.
)

Does this place also have a wine shop attached or part of it? If so, how was it (if you checked it out that is)?

Hi Andy, if you look at TripAdvisor for the Writer's Place Restaurant at Pinhão you can find a picture of the outside of the restaurant that shows it is also a wineshop and sells regional products.

Paul C. Metman wrote:

Andy Velebil wrote:

Bert VD wrote:hey Paul, the restaurant is Casa do Escritor. it's simple but nice and they are super friendly.
)

Does this place also have a wine shop attached or part of it? If so, how was it (if you checked it out that is)?

Hi Andy, if you look at TripAdvisor for the Writer's Place Restaurant at Pinhão you can find a picture of the outside of the restaurant that shows it is also a wineshop and sells regional products.

Thanks, I saw that in the pics but wasn't sure if it was the same place or just something next to it. And of course I was curious as to what they may have carried (upper ends wines or just value ones for the tourists)...and the important part, their prices.

so i completely missed that it was a shop too



i just got back from Portugal and i brought home a little cork oak. so now i'm looking for a nice empty magnum (or larger) port bottle to cut the neck off and use as a planter. preferably one that doesn't have a paper label but something nice printed on like a Niepoort bottle. i've only ever had one magnum port bottle but i didn't keep the empty glass. it would have been perfect (Noval 85 LBV)