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.
