Porto - Day 3 (Day trip to the Douro Valley)

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Today we joined a bus tour to the Douro Valley. Bernie was very keen to get out into the countryside to learn more about Portugal’s wine and port industry in the Douro Valley. Since I am still not drinking, I was less interested, but saw it as an opportunity to leave the navigating to someone else for the day AND enjoy a rest from slogging up and down the hills in Porto!!

We had to walk down to the meeting point opposite the town hall by 8.10am so the early start was a bit unpalatable! Once we were all accounted for, loaded onto the bus and motoring out of Porto Igor introduced himself – ‘I bet when you booked this tour you didn’t know it was going to be with John Wick?’ Ha, ha, he did bear quite a resemblance to Keanu Reeves’ John Wick character!

After such an early start I have to confess that I was asleep for quite a large proportion of the journey to our first toilet stop! However, I do recall Igor telling us that in the Douro Valley they have nine months of winter and three months of hell. Summers are hot, really hot in the Douro Valley. Temperatures over 40°C are common for most of the summer months. It is these precise climatic conditions that create the particular character/flavours of the grapes and hence the wines of the Douro Valley.

We stopped for about 20 minutes in the small town of Régua. We queued up to use a pretty crusty public toilet with no toilet paper. Quite a few of the ladies bailed at that point, I think they were going to buy coffees or cakes at cafes in order to use the café’s toilet. I, on the other hand, was prepared with my trusty wad of toilet paper in my bag for just such a situation.

From the public convenience we walked part way across the pedestrian bridge to take our first photos of the Douro Valley in the short amount of time left to us before we needed to re-board the bus. With everyone back on the bus, it was time to head up into the hills to our first winery, Quinta St Julia a small family-run winery that has been continuously operated by the same family since the 1500s! That’s an impressive history.

At St Julia, we were shown into the tasting room alongside the HUGE port barrels maturing their ports. Catarina gave us a short history of the winery and told us about their hopes for a vintage port this season. Apparently, the conditions have been perfect to produce grapes that have a good chance of being declared suitable for a vintage port. The young port must be sent to a tasting panel and they are the authority that will allow only the wineries considered worthy to produce a 2023 vintage port.

After tasting the estate’s extra virgin olive oil and a red and a white wine the group was taken for a short tour to look out over the vines and learn a bit more about harvesting the grapes. The hills here are so harsh looking it was hard to believe that they produce delicious, sweet grapes perfect for making port. Apparently, the vines grow long roots down through the schist to take up water from the aquifers beneath. Despite the harsh summers no irrigation is done, in fact no irrigation is allowed in the Douro Valley. The exact character required of a Douro grape/wine/port, is determined by the harsh growing conditions.

Our last stop was in the old shed where they used to stomp on the grapes to extract the juice. They still stomp the grapes here on this estate, but now do it in a more modern facility rather than in the old concrete troughs that they used to use. Progress!

Following our tour, it was time for lunch which is provided by the winery. As we boarded the bus this morning, we had to choose meat or fish for main course, cake or fruit for dessert. Igor came around asking us please do not change your mind about what you want to eat, you need to stick with the order that you put in this morning because the kitchen has prepared food accordingly. How many people must have a change of heart that he even needs to go around telling everyone this???

After lunch there was just time for a quick visit to the single ladies toilet on site. While I was waiting in the inevitable queue for the ladies a few other gals snuck into the men’s. Why not, there were no men in the queue at that stage. Damn it, just before I could use the men’s (some women had steadfastly refused to stoop to using the men’s) a boy arrived to use the toilet and he was followed by a man, so the ladies had to let that workaround go!!

Back on the bus we returned to Régua where we crossed to the other side of the Rio Douro on our way to the next winery. After crossing the river we continued to drive upriver coming upon the Bagaúste Dam and Lock. We have seen cruise ships in Porto and in Régua, but had no idea how far they could cruise upriver. A quick Google as I write this reveals that a system of five dams and locks makes the Douro River navigable for its entire length within Portugal and beyond into Spain. We were lucky enough to see a cruise ship in the lock being lifted to the level of the water beyond the dam wall to continues its passage upstream.

Our driver, also Luiz as it happens, had to make a hook turn and negotiate a very skinny, unmade track into the St Luiz Estate. I think at one stage Igor told us that St Julia’s produces about 300,000 bottles each year while Quinta St Luiz produces 3,000,000! At our second stop we had our short tour first followed by another tasting. I forgot to mention that red and white wine was being offered freely with lunch too, so everyone was getting pretty well lubricated, except me, I think. This time the tasting involved a white port and a red port, so the alcoholic volume was being ratcheted up this afternoon after lunch!! With the tasting portions already poured before our arrival (at both venues) Bernie has been having a pretty good go at consuming his portions AND mine!!

The final stop on our tour was at Pinhão where we took a 45-minute cruise on the Douro. Very crowded, but it was interesting to gain a different perspective on the vines and the estates covering the hills. When we returned to the dock the rain that had been threatening all day started to fall. What bad timing! If it had waited just five more minutes we would have been back on the bus.

After an interesting day in the Douro Valley it was time to return to the city. I actually managed to stay awake for most of the return journey so was able to appreciate the plunging valleys and sweeping bridges that we were traversing. I counted at least eight rivers that we crossed between Pinhão and Porto and at one stage we passed through a tunnel that I believe Igor said is five kilometres long. The hills are high and the valleys deep so quite a few engineering marvels have been constructed to carry the freeway efficiently between the Douro Valley and the city.

After an 11 hour tour we were dropped off back in Porto. Still not a huge fan of bus tours, but it was interesting to leave the city behind us and explore a more rural/agricultural area, especially one so famous as the Douro Valley.



Steps: 8,865 (6.06 kms)

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