You can’t go to Porto without tasting port.
On our previous trip to Porto a few years ago, we spent 2 days here. We had driven up from central Portugal to taste some port from the source. So besides seeing where port is produced on our Duoro river trip, we wanted to visit the famous port wine caves. Port grapes are grown on the river Duoro where we visited on our train trip. The wine is then shipped down the river to the port caves (sometimes called lodges or cellars) where it is turned into port by adding brandy. Our tax person in England had said the best place to go is the English brand Taylor Fladgate. He said lunch on the terrace was a must do. We previously ventured to Taylors on the top of the hill in our last trip where we just visited the tasting room. This time we did lunch
The view from Taylors.
The garden at Taylors.
Barry in the tasting room there.
In order to get there, we had to cross the river on the top level of the 2 level bridge I previously shared photos of. The we had to find our way down through the streets to the cave. A note here that caves are what they call the port houses where the port is made, stored and tasted. The wine comes down the Duoro river in boats pictured below.
The nature of drinking port has changed over the years. It was known as the sweet after dinner drink favored by rich old men in the clubs of London. Today port is readily available in white, green, pink as well as traditional ruby and tawny. Also new is the popularity of port tonic which is port with tonic water and a slice of lemon and is served as an aperitif. Our first drink of this was the ruby port with tonic and it was very refreshing on a hot day.
Our next visit was to Ramos Pintos. We had been there before on our previous trip to Porto and took the beginner port tasting and decided to go back for the intermediate tasting.
Ramos Pintos port cave tasting room.
Our tasting flight
We decided not to try any other caves this visit. Although we revisited old favorites on this trip, it was worth it and with over 50 caves to try and the buzz from drinking too much port, you could never try them all anyway.
We have had port in restaurants as either an aperitif (usually white for before dinner) or for dessert with coffee so we really did get all we needed from this trip.
