When was your very first visit to No. Portugal?

[Roy Hersh]

What year and who/what/where did you you visit in Porto/Gaia and the Douro?

[Carl D]

What year and who/what/where did you you visit in Porto/Gaia and the Douro?

Fall of 2013, on the harvest tour with Roy & company. I hope!

[Anders]

2007 in August....

Stayed at Quinta do portal, visited Seara d Ordens, Casal dos Jordoes, Quinta de Ervamoira

In VNG I`ve visited Grahams, Taylors, Ramos pinto, Sandeman, Calem

This Year will be my 4th tour to Douro/Porto

[Andy Velebil]

The year was 2006 and I met a strange man wearing a Portugal tee-shirt in an airport in Newark. He also happened to be going to Porto so we had a beer and some lunch then boarded our flight to Oporto. Once there, and over several days, we met a merry band of misfits while traveling through the streets of Gaia and the wilds of the Douro. We visited many a properties, drank many a bottles of wine and Port, then stayed up late in our hotel lobby finishing off the left overs. That was the 2006 Harvest Trip, the strange man was Roy, and some of the merry band of misfits I now count as some of my close friends, who also happen to post here. Fun times indeed.

[Eric Ifune]

Strangely enough, it was a year or two after Andy; and my experience mirrored his. Odd how that works out!

[Glenn E.]

June of 2007 with my wife on a trip to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We spent 2 days in Pinhao at Quinta de la Rosa and then 2 more days in Porto at the Pestana. We had such a great time that we went back the next year for 8 days and took my folks with us. I joined FTLOP in between the two trips as I explored the topic of Port on the internet.

I didn't meet the strange man in the black polo shirt in Portugal until 2010 on the Port Harvest Tour.

[Derek T.]

February 2005. I persuaded my partner, Jo, to accompany me to Porto to tour the Port lodges as part of my 40th birthday celebrations. I returned with more bottles of Port than I owned before I went and it was the start of a very slippery slope.

My next visit was during the harvest of 2006 with Al B. We took a taxi from the airport to Quinta do Crasto in the early evening with a Douro driver, arranged by Mario Ferreira. It was the most terrifying journey of my life. Stopping in the centre lane of the motorway so that the driver could take a phone call was one of the highlights!

When we got to Crasto we met a weird group: a New Yorker in a black t-shirt; a cop from L.A.; a computer geek from Seattle; another computer geek from the mountains of California; an investment banker from London; a man with a tatooed leg, and ; Mario, the coolest man in Portugal.

Five minutes after we arrived we were eating a great meal, drinking great port and feeling like this was what home should feel like. I count many of the people I met on that trip as some of my best friends. My only regret is that we live so far apart.

For anyone out their wondering whether or not it is a good idea to go to Porto and/or the Douro, stop thinking about it and do it!

[Derek T.]

I didn't meet the strange man in the black polo shirt in Portugal until 2010 on the Port Harvest Tour.

But you did meet a Scotsman, an Englishman and a Canadian for lunch in Regua in 2008

[Glenn E.]

I didn't meet the strange man in the black polo shirt in Portugal until 2010 on the Port Harvest Tour.

But you did meet a Scotsman, an Englishman and a Canadian for lunch in Regua in 2008

Yes I did! And it still sounds like the start of a joke...

[Al B.]

My first visit started way back in Fall August 1992 when my wife suggested we go on a cruise for our summer holiday the following year. She doesn't travel well on the sea so we quickly agreed a river cruise would be best.

We ran through the advantages and disadvantages of a number of European river cruises (Danube, Rhine, Gironde, Seine etc.) but finally settled on the Douro when we found out that 1993 was going to be the first year in which proper river cruises using the locks would be operating. The cruise was a great mix of sightseeing, history visits and wine tasting.

Then in June 1993 my wife became pregnant with our first child.

So in August 1993 my wife and I embarked on a booze cruise with her suffering from dreadful morning sickness and off the alcohol! The cruise company were brilliant. There was a coach and a taxi meeting the boat at each of its stops. 28 people got on the coach, 2 left half an hour later in the taxi - and we usually managed to catch up with the coach on the way to the first appointment.

I'll try to have to look in the photo album to remind myself of all the places we went to on that trip, but I do remember finishing off the week's cruise with a bottle of Malvedos 1979 that was bought at the quinta and was drunk on the Porto bank of the Douro looking onto the Lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia. My, how the countryside and cities have changed - but not in a bad way, in my humble opinion.

[Al B.]

I've just spent a happy half hour going through my photo albums to see where my first trip to Northern Portugal took me. We arrived on August 28 and spent the first night moored on the Oporto side of the Douro - and took some great night shots of the lights on top of the lodges. Day 1 saw us sail upriver to the Carrapatelo dam, past a fire helicopter picking up buckets of water to dump on a nearby brushfire. Day 2 was a visit to Palacio de Mateus - a great building and beautiful gardens before sailing further upriver past Sao Luiz, Bomfim, Boa Vista, Malvedos, Roeda, Romaneira and Vargellas. Upriver from Vargellas we went through another lock which required the awning on the deck to be completely flattened! Day 3 brought a visit to Almeida - well worth a visit if you're into history - and then Figueira Castelo Rodrigo in the afternoon. Dinner was on board the boat watching the sun set over the Barca D'Alva bridge without a cloud in the sky. Day 4 started the return journey.

Day 5 took us to Lamego and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Remedies, the pilgrims' steps and the Bisop's Palace. Dinner was in the old monastery, which was very atmospheric.

Day 6 saw us sailing back into Oporto, with a unique view of the Dom Pedro bridge - from underneath! The afternoon saw visits to the lodges of Taylor (souvenir was a reasonably priced bottle of Taylor '63 - those were the days!) and Graham.

Day 7 was a tour of Oporto and VNdG with a final evening dinner and party on board the boat - that's when the Malvedos '79 was drunk. A bottle which must have come from the Graham lodge since it seems that we never visited Malvedos!

And the last bottle I purchased was as we passed through the airport on the way home - when I found a bottle of Burmester 1937 colheita on offer for the equivalent of £40. Far more than I'd ever spent on a single bottle at that time and for many years it was the oldest bottle of wine that I had bought.

And that is the story of my first visit to Northern Portugal...

[Roy Hersh]

This is a brilliant thread. A great example of Port Basics.

[Andy Velebil]

Wonderful stories, keep 'em coming folks

[Paul Fountain]

My first visit was in 2008. I had already spent around 3 weeks in various parts Spain and was on a small group tour that started in Barcelona and finished in Lisbon, and moved across northern Spain before entering into Portugal from Galicia. There was really only a day and a half in Porto to look around. Looking back at it now, I realize that none of us knew very much about port, but we were certainly enthusiastic. Kopke was our first stop, mainly because that was the first one we spotted. We didn't have a full appreciation that they were better known for their wood aged offerings. After trying what they had on offer for free tastings, we bought a bottle of 85 VP and drank it there. We then went on to Taylor's where we also consumed a 91 Vargellas. That was followed by a stop in at Croft on the way down the hill. This then led to a late lunch where I had my first Francesinha. Despite the francesinha, I made it back to Taylor's in the evening for a very nice meal at the restaurant.

[Andy Velebil]

This then led to a late lunch where I had my first Francesinha. Despite the francesinha, I made it back to Taylor's in the evening for a very nice meal at the restaurant.

nothing like a lead weight sitting in your stomach for that uphill walk

[Eric Menchen]

September 2008. My wife and I went for our 11th anniversary. I liked dessert wines at the time but was not addicted to Port as I am now. Our primary reason for going was to see the Red Bull Air Race. Why see it in a place like Detroit when you can see it in Oporto? We rented an apartment in Oporto about a block from the river and less than 150' from Vinologia. Other than watching the race, we had no agenda but to explore as we felt like it. We visited Calem, Kopke, Quinto do Noval (tasting room in VnDG), had a great meal at Taylor, and took a single day boat cruise as well. Pictures of Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, the Douro, Calem, Taylor, and Vinoligia are on Picasa. If you look around in my albums you can also find all the race pictures. Marijke gets credit for nearly all of the photography.

[Roy Hersh]

Someone has a keen eye!

[Stewart T.]

My first trip to Portgual was the 2006 Harvest Tour, where I first met many of the guys above who have posted their memories. I started a two quirky traditions that year. Andy Velebil and I snapped photos of ourselves in the Niepoort truck [see my avatar to the right of this post], and i've continued to hop into the drivers seats of quinta-owned trucks to snap a quick photo ever since. The second fun tradition also started in 2006, and that was getting a photo of the owners and/or winemakers and I drinking Port out of the bottles. Kind of silly, yes, but I put the following together as a montage of a few of the great winemakers and Port personalities that have decided to have a little photo fun with me...

The very first one in 2006 was Taylor Fladgate's Alistair Robertson...




2007 Harvest Tour


2008 Harvest Tour


2010 Fortification Tour


2010 Harvest Tour


2011 Harvest Tour

[Eric Ifune]

Good to see the producers enjoying themselves with the tours!

[Bryan H.]

My first and only trip to Oporto was during Euro 2004, when Portugal hosted. I saw one match at Dragao stadium. Sadly, Port was not consumed that visit.

I've been to Portugal many times, but generally to Lisbon and the Costa Azul, or many years ago, the Algarve.

I definitely need to get on one of the tours and get back to Porto for a proper amount of time and with a proper, port-filled agenda.