Porto and the Douro Valley
This is the only European wine region a river cruise crosses from end to end, and the only one whose tasting lodges are a walk from the city centre. The Douro can be travelled three ways — by train, by car or on the water — and the three trips do not tell the same story.
Understanding port in five minutes
Port is a fortified wine: fermentation is stopped by adding grape spirit, which keeps the sugar and raises the strength. Everything else — colour, flavour, price — depends on how the wine ages afterwards.
Ruby: aged a few years in large vats, it keeps its red fruit and its youth. Served slightly chilled.
Tawny: aged in small casks that let a little air through. The colour turns russet, the flavour moves towards walnut, caramel and candied orange.
LBV: a single vintage, four to six years in cask. The middle ground between Ruby and Vintage.
Colheita: a single-year Tawny, long aged in cask. Oxidative complexity with the precision of a vintage.
Vintage: declared only in great years, bottled after two years, built to age for decades. Must be decanted.
White: made from white grapes, served very cold, increasingly drunk as a cocktail with tonic, lemon and mint.
The lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia
They are not in Porto but facing it, on the far bank of the Douro, linked by the Luís I bridge. Taylor's, Graham's, Sandeman, Ferreira and the rest line up their vats in cool dark halls. This is where you understand the difference between a ten-year Tawny and a thirty-year one by tasting them side by side, which is impossible to do in Quebec without spending seriously.
Going up the valley
The Douro railway line hugs the bank all the way to Pocinho, and the last stretch, between Peso da Régua and Pinhão, passes for one of the finest rail journeys in Europe. By car, the switchbacks above the schist terraces demand attention but give the viewpoints. By boat, the climb passes through some of the deepest locks on the continent. The other great wine routes are compared in our guide to wine routes.
The quintas that receive visitors
A quinta is an estate, often with its house, its terraces and sometimes its rooms. Many welcome visitors for a tasting, a meal or a night. Quinta do Crasto for its pool suspended above the valley, Quinta do Vale Meão for its history, Quinta do Bomfim for the quality of its guided visits. Booking is still needed, but the lead time is days, not months.
Douro DOC — the dry wines nobody knows yet
The same grapes that make port also make dry table wines, and that is the Portuguese revolution of the last thirty years. Touriga nacional, the valley's leading variety, gives reds that are both powerful and perfumed, on violet and liquorice. These wines are still little known outside Portugal.
When should you go?
April to June, then September and October. Summer is very hot in the valley, which behaves like a schist oven, and the quintas are working the harvest in late September. Spring brings almond blossom and green terraces; autumn brings the colours and, at some quintas, traditional foot treading.
How much wine can you bring home?
After 48 hours or more abroad, the Canadian personal exemption covers 1.5 litres of wine per adult — two 750 ml bottles. Beyond that you declare the bottles and pay the applicable duty and taxes, including the provincial portion collected at the border. The minimum age to import alcohol in Quebec is 18.
Organising the trip from Quebec
Porto is reached through Lisbon, Paris or London. A week is enough: three nights in Porto for the city and the lodges, three nights in the valley. It is also the region that combines best with a river cruise, a formula that settles transport, lodging and the driver question in one move.
Voyages AquaTerra holds a Quebec travel agency licence. Our clients are covered by the Compensation Fund for Customers of Travel Agents, under the conditions set out in the regulation. Call an adviser at 1-866-628-6241. The boat option is detailed on our European river cruise page.
The Douro can also be climbed by rail, on the finest railway line in the country: see our guide to Portugal by train.
