Drenched in the Douro Valley

Today, Priya, Mama, and I ventured to the stunning Douro Valley, one of the protected designation of origins of wine, famous for port in particular. Despite the rain coming down for most of the day, views from the ride were too breathtaking to capture in single photographs, but here's one of Vila Real, a town on the water that we passed on the way.

The journey took about an hour and a half by bus, through verdant undulating hills cut with terraces for the viticulture for which the region is famous.

Our first stop was the Régua train station, whence departs the fabled "Train to Nowhere" that meanders through the Douro valley with no particular destination. 

Our carriage for the day, however, was decisive about its designated destinations. The first winery we visited was Quinta da Roêda, the farmstead on which the company Croft has its holdings. We learned that the word quinta ("one-fifth") is used to refer to a farm in Portugal because one-fifth of the profits of such farms were reserved for the king, a fifth went to the owners of the estate, a fifth for the church, another fifth for the bishop of the church, and the last fifth to pay those who worked the land. I also learned that tawny port (my favorite) is called "tawny" because it has a golden-red color as it's fortified with brandy! Back in the day, 20% of the cask was filled with brandy so that it could stay on the shelf longer. No wonder it's so yum.

At the Croft vineyard, we sampled a rosé and a ruby port before wandering the property. My quickly wettening hair did not stop me from finding a few vantage points and dreaming about sitting there, glass in hand, on a sunnier day. 

For lunch, we stopped at Casa Dos Barros, a small family-run winery and lodge in the small town of Sabrosa. Somehow, Mama caught a whiff of the fact that this property neighbored the house in which Ferdinand Magellan was born! We peeped in at his birthplace in between courses of our traditional Portuguese meal, and sampling sessions of 20- and 30-year old aged tawny wines.

The third stop was our collective favorite, at the Quinta dos Castelares, the only farmstead in Portugal to produce certified organic wines. The guide there, Armeliano, showed us the massive chestnut wood wine barrels used to make port here, some holding 12,000 liters of wine and costing $50,000 USD!

We sampled a series of chestnut-aged wines along with the best olive oil we've had and a medley of honeys—rosemary, chestnut, and heather. Rosemary was the clear winner, and we returned to Porto with soaking wet clothes, satisfied tummies, and jars of warm honey in our backpacks.