Two day trip to Porto

We saw some of Porto before crossing over to Villa Nova de Gaia to visit some of the port houses, which have river-front bars. First we stopped for at Quinta De Noval for a 10 year tawny. We thought this had a particularly nice silky, melt-in-your-mouth quality and would end up buying a bottle to take home.

Quinta De Noval 10 year tawny.

The next stop was Porto Cruz, where we had another 10 year tawny.

Porto Cruz 10 year tawny.

And to finish off the day…

A selection of Portuguese cheeses.

We left early the following morning to tour the Duoro valley. Our first stop was at Croft’s estate, where we had a white port, ruby and reserve tawny.

Croft white, ruby and reserve tawny.

A fungus is causing problems for the estate’s vines and olive trees.

Then we went further up the valley to a cooperative that specialises in Moscatel, a fortified wine made using the same process as port, but using a different graph variety giving it a distinct character and lighter colour. We visited a cellar where the wines including Moscatel and Port are aged.

That’s a lot of port.

Before our flight home, we went to a wine shop to buy some bottles to take back on the plane.

The haul brought home