Craving exercise I rose early and ran along the rainy riverside, braving the track to ask if I could photograph the vine pruners; success, pigeon Portuguese triumphed!
Rain scuppered our plans to canoe up the valley, neither of is fancied open canoes! So we headed across the road to explore the Quinta do Bomfim, fortunately just in time to join an English-speaking tour. The wine cellars were really old. We were schooled in the art of port wine creation, including different names and types of port. Imbibing too much port at the tasting, I now don’t remember! I did enjoy the self – guided wander through the vines up the steep terraces behind the Quinta though, especially when the sun briefly came out.
The rain looked set for the day, so we took a boat tour up the valley. We dutifully downloaded the app, which was to inform us, in English, of the history and sights of the Douro valley we were to see; unfortunately limited signal meant limited functionality! I did glean, that the long dry hot summers concentrate the sugars in the grapes, locking the unique sweetness in after fortification arrests the fermentation. It was spectacular to think all the terraces with the iconic dry stone walls were and still are hand-built. Now they also create mounds with small earth movers. Becoming more eco-friendly, some terraces house multiple rows of vines interspersed with olives and fruit trees. You could see the effects of past and present economic crises again, contrasting the more accessible shallower prosperous sections with the hard to reach, steeper ,wild, dryer, higher slopes. The iconic railway still lines the river valley, whilst tiled murals depicting the region's port industrial heritage decorate the local station. It was a rather blustery return, I was glad of my jumper!
We dined in luxury at the hotel, where there were more attentive, some very young, staff than diners, so we surmised this might also be a hotel school!
Photos - just my snaps!
Early morning soggy run through Pinhão along the Douro
Quinta do Bomfim & Port wine tasting
Douro Valley river cruise
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