Vindima 2015 Monday 5th October

Well what a glorious sunset we saw from our hotel room window on Friday

evening. I fould my feijoada but wasn't so impressed with it as previously.

On Saturday we had a great walk along the front at Vila do Conde before walking back to our annual visit to Lidl. On the way Dot was over the moon as we chanced on an outdoor market. It was amazing to see such an array of vegetables and even livestock available at miniscule prices. After all the morning's exertions we spent the afternoon chilling at the hotel before having another long session in the hotel's spa pool.

One of our favourite foods in Portugal is javali, wild boar. As we hadn't had any and it was our last night we decided to track some down. We ended up in a restaurant that we had spurned before because the prices were a bit steep. However the javali was beautifully cooked and the flavour combinations well worth what we paid for them. I also had a scrummy cheesey creamy desert that was served in a Kilner jar, most unusual. I chose it as it was the only thing that they hadn't managed to transalate from the Portuguese for the English menu. The French couple at the table next to us were amazed when I managed in fluent (ahem) Portuguese to decline coffee, ask to look at the bottle, and then order two glasses of Nierpoort tawny port. Unfortunately the port was served in cocktail glasses, which I found challenging. We struck up a long and interesting conversation with our neighbours which made me realise how much of my schoolboy French I had lost.

For the first time in the whole two weeks, Sunday dawned wet and windy. The weather made it easier to say goodbye to Portugal than it would have been had the sun shone. Our journey home was tiring but not particularly eventful despite having to take the rail replacement bus from Three Bridges to Lewes. Oh joy, oh bliss, the port that we ordered at Quinta da Pacheca arrived this afternoon so we can carry on where we left off.

Vindima 2015, Friday 2nd October

Sunday saw us getting up late and not rushing the packing ready to catch the train back to Porto. The trip was largely uneventful with us reading our books most of the time. Back at the Hotel Peninsular we found that we had been put in
the same great room that we had on our first night. After recovering from the journey and unpacking we headed over the bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia. We were given a leaflet about a producer we hadn't heard of so decided to check them out. the Porto Augusto's had a place for tastings and tours up a narrow side street. The tour wasn't great but the port made up for it. The guide mentioned that they aged the tawny in half size barrels and the complexity of the wines reflected this. In fact I am sipping a glass of the tawny reserve we bought while we were there as I write this. By then it was time to pop round to Quevedo's for fado, dancing and a wee drop of port. By the time we left there was just time to pop back to our room before heading out for supper.

On Monday we had an appointment for lunch in Foz with Jean from the Quinta do Val da Figueira. She had kindly invited us while we were in Pinhão. We headed out on the metro to Mastosinhos and walked down to find her place. We were a little early so popped down to the seafront to sit for a bit. On our way back we spotted Jean outside her gate. Her house was wonderful being packed full with all sorts of interesting objects. We had a jolly good meal too as well as an excellent white wine from the quinta followed by the best ten year old port in existence. The main course was octopus rice and very delicious it was too. The octopus had been cooked to perfection so it just melted in the mouth. Jean was remarkable full of vigour considering that she had been late back the night before from a wedding in Braga. During the conversation we mentioned that we had never been able to see inside the Factory House in Porto. Before we knew it Jean had fixed us up with an appointment at ten the following day. It goes to show what a great time we had as we didn't leave until 4:30.

We walked down to where the trams go back into town from. We sat reading our

books on a nearby bench and by some weird leading we got up just at the right time to catch the next tram, which only runs hourly. Now when I say tram, these are really ancient ones. It was great but noisy fun rattling back into town and a lot easier than walking. After all that excitement we just had enough energy to walk back to our room. After a rest we headed out to a little cheap restaurant we know of as we didn't need a huge meal.

We woke up early on Tuesday morning full of anticipation about our visit to the Factory House at ten. We couldn't believe our luck as we waited inside the entrance hall for our guide to be Dona Olga. She was brilliant and showed us everything including the map room, the library, the drawing room, the ballroom, the famous twin dining rooms, the old kitchen, and, of course, the cellars. We felt so priviledged and honoured and could hardly believe it was happening. We were surprised that most of the books in the library seemed to be English novels. We discovered that, like Jean, Olga had grown up at Quinta da Roêda as her father took over the running of the place for Croft after Jean's father. We were so grateful to her for giving up an hour and half to give us one of the best exeriences of our lives.


Afterwards we popped over to Gaia to the Porto Cruz place to try out some vintages. Feeling the need for something to soak up the port we went to 3+ arte where we knew we could get the genuine chouriço assado. We were recognised from when we went there last year so had a great experience, after which it was time to pop back to Quevedo for more fado, dancing and, of course, port. We saw Oscar Quevedo again as he was waiting for an appointment with some people from Holland. There was no pressure as we did a tango for him. Blow me down if it wasn't soon time to pop back to our hotel for a freshen up before supper.

The next day we were faced with the problem of what to do after the highs of the day before. From the tram ride on Monday Dot had seen that the Terracotta Army exhibition had just opened in Porto. By some miracle I managed to lead us through the backstreets and passages to come out exactly at the right place. The exhibition was very thought provoking and only cost us €9 each to get in. I bet it was a lot dearer when it was in London! All the information was in Portuguese but I more or less managed to transalate it for Dot much to the amusement of one of the other visitors.

We decided to walk along the front to Ribeira. Going past a small wine shop we decided to try their offerings. It was Quinta do Sagrado and was based in the

green and white house we had seen from the other side of the rivera with Cálem written large at the top. We were given a whopping glass each of LBV and Tawny to try. We had a great talk with the girl who served us. Dot bought a bottle of the tawny for €7.50 which meant we didn't have to pay the €6 for the tasting! As we were leaving I looked at the map inside and it dawned on me that these were the people that had sold Quinta da Foz that I really wanted to get in touch with. As a result we are planning to stay at the property next time we come.

Feeling well oiled we wandered back to 3+ arte for a lesson in cocktail making. The ruby orange consisted of half port wine, 2 slices of orange peel, 6 drops of fresh lemon juice, half orange juice and cinamon sprinkled on top. It was lovely. Not quite so impressive but subtle nevertheless was the white lady, which had a cinamon stick and mint leaf in chilled white port. We plan to try these out when we get back to England. Well we just had to have another chouriço assado to accompany them before our last afternoon of fado, dance and port at Quevedo. Before leaving for Quevedo we had to return the favour of the cocktail lesson by dancing a tango, which was filmed for their Facebook page. That evening I took my tablet along to Lagostim to show them pictures from our first visit there in 2004. They caused quite a stir among the staff.

Yesterday we had breakfast at Kopke before catching the metro here to the Santana Hotel in Azurara. When I say breakfast I mean a 20 year old tawny, a 1983 colheita, a 1978 colheita and a 40 year old white accompanied by chocolates. As usual we had a great welcome and overall experience there.

Since coming here on the metro we have been generally chilling out and recovering from the packed days we have had. Last night we had a somewhat expensive, but justifiably so in view of the quality of the cuisine, meal at the Repúblika Restaurante with a scrumptious main of duck with forest fruits. By some miracle I managed to marry this up with a local regional wine that was also redolant with hints of forrest fruit flavours. We finished up with pão de ló washed down with a Ferreira 10 year old. Today I've been catching up with sorting out photos and blogs etc. However we have found time for a lovely long swim in the deserted hotel swimming pool and a good soak in the jacuzzi. The health suite has been given a great make over and is now looking really good. It is a little confusing though as in the refurb they have swopped the mens and ladies changing rooms around. Tonight I am hoping to track down some genuine fejoida before we have to fly back to England.

Vindima 2015, Saturday 26th September

Another sunny morning woke us up on Wednesday morning. We decided to try out the new visitor centre at Quinta da Roêda after having been to Bomfim the day before. It was a lovely walk up the long sweeping drive along side the

Douro. When we arrived we found that the facility had only opened less than a fortnight before our arrival. We were the only ones there so we had the tour all to ourselves. As usual with us the allegedly 30 minute tour took twice as long as we talked about port with our young guide. A highlight was having the opportunity to taste grapes of different varieties in the vineyard. However we were not able to see the winery proper, just a scaled down area with half height lagars for the tourists to have a go in. It was interesting that they were keeping the visitors' wine separate for aging. The tasting was better than average consisting of the ubiquitous Croft Pink but also a ruby reserve and a ten year old. We were able to enjoy this on the shady veranda.

After heading back to our hotel to freshen up we caught up with our taxi driver to head off to our appointment with Oscar Quevedo at the family quinta in São João da Pesqueira. The quinta is the Quinta Nossa Senhora do Rosário.

Unfortunately due to a misunderstanding Manuel took us to the wrong quinta which involved a long detour almost to Quinta do Vesuvio. Never mind, with the help of a postman we were only a little late when we arrived and had seen some spectacular scenery. Oscar was pleased that we had made the effort to get there. He explained how they made all their ports without using lagars, which was interesting. This was followed by the most amazing port tasting ever as all the ports came direct from the wood. We were also able to see the bottling line, reception of grapes and quinta shop. The journey back was not nearly so adventurous but the views were impressive.

The good weather continued the following day. After breakfast we were suddenly hailed by the hotel staff as Jean from Quinta do Val da Figueira was trying to get in touch with us. We were invited to drinks at six. As we were feeling recovered from our long walk on the first day in Porto we decided to do the walk to Provesende. It was a solid uphill slog for a couple of hours. More than once I thought why am I doing this. It was a great sense of achievement to arrive once more in Provesende having enjoyed the dramatic countryside on the way.

Dot had heard about an old bakery which I spotted on the other side of the

square. It is the Padaria Fátima. We went in and bought a loaf of bread and were given a guided tour. The old ladies were proud of their ancient but enormous bread oven. They were rattling away to us in Portuguese. Towards the end I managed to understand when one of them asked why we didn't understand very well. She seemed quite surprised when I explained that no one spoke Portuguese where we lived! We popped across to the bar with the tartaruga (turtle) for a beer and sat outside savouring it with the bread which still had a little warmth in it.

This time we took the easy way to Quinta do Portal, which was a more or less level walk of an hour through the vineyards. After a tasting and buying a couple of bottles of 29 Grapes (I am sure it was 27 Grapes last time I bought it) we asked the assitant to summon Manuel to drive us back to Pinhão so that we had time to freshen up before going to see Jean.

After our exertions earlier in the day it was a hard slog walking up to the Quinta do Val da Figueira. On the way a car screeched to a halt beside us and we saw it contained Tim and Patricia and their daughter Sophia who own the Quinta de la Rosa. They were sorry that we hadn't been able to stay with them this time and encouraged us to join in the treading that night. We carried on up the hill and had lovely time with Jean and her delighful dog Tua. Like mad things after supper we walked back up the hill to la Rosa for an hour's treading. I had a great time in the lagar practicing my portuguese with a lady who was trying to learn english. We were just about as bad as each other so there was no embarassment. By the time we got back to our hotel room we were bushed.

Friday was the day we transferred to Peso da Régua. We got Manuel to drive us to Quinto do Tedo where we were soon recognised. The owner, Vincent Bouchard, and his wife were there and we were introduced to them. We asked to

do the tour and were able to see the lagars for the first time along with the new azejulos that had been installed. We had a stonkingly good tasting and ordered a load of port to be sent home. While we were tasting we saw M. Bouchard making a hash of opening a bottle of vintage, which could explain why the 2003 we tasted wasn't up to much. We elected to try out the new vineyard walk. It was really hot by then. After the exertions of the day before we took it steady and decided to leave seeking out the Marquis de Pombal's marking stones to another visit. We were soon on the rest of our way in another taxi. That evening we were greeted fondly a the Restaurante Almeiro. Afterwards we listened to an outside concert, which was conected with a book fair. At the fair there was the launch of a Dictionary of Port Wine. After umming and arring for a bit I splashed out €45 as it was a beautiful book and I could just about cope with the portuguese. One of the compilers was there so he signed it for me.

Today it has been really hot. In the morning we walked over to Quinta da Pacheca where we were given a great tour and tasting by a guy who recognised us from when he used to work at Tedo. It was an hours walk each way so we spent the afternoon chilling out reading books, sewing and writing up blogs. We popped down to the Castelinho caves but it was so heaving with three coach loads of visitors that we aborted and went back to our hotel. Soon it will be time to pop out for supper and maybe a little dancing in a bar we spotted yesterday.