For The Love Of Port

Insight into who the Douro Boys are . . .
You get the feeling that the commercialisation of the Douro valley has negative overtones . . .

I first went to the Douro in 1982 and there was no place for tourists to stay in Pinhao then. I was lucky that Bruce Guimaraens invited me to stay at his house for a week. Now the Douro has a luxury hotel and fine restaurants. I am happy to see the changes, but some people worry about how much commercialization the Douro can take.

I have lived in the Napa Valley since 1976 and have watched the big time commercialization there. Napa had less than forty wineries then compared to close to four hundred now. Then few tourists came and the wineries were mostly family owned. Then there was not even a good restaurant in the whole county. So some of the changes are great, it is fantastic to have so many fine restaurants. But the heavy commercialization has many downsides. I feel Napa Valley was a more pleasant place to visit ten to fifteen years ago.

Napa is only one hour from San Francisco in a metropolitan area with more than seven million people. San Francisco itself is a major tourist destination and many people take a day trip to Napa.

The Douro will never see the tourist pressure that Napa gets, so I welcome more restaurants and hotels. Maybe in thirty years people will say it is too touristy, but it still will be far better than Napa Valley.