Traveling with the Silverfox

Traveling with the SilverFox Wine tasting in Porto

I think I have mentioned before that we like to go wine tasting in the different countries and regions we visit. And Porto was no exception.

Porto wines known as port goes as far back as when the Romans inhabited this land. The vineyards must suffer to produce good wines: hot, cold, hot. Water for the grapes comes from the rain stored on the mountains, and the olive trees are used as boundaries between the lands. There are 118 different types of grapes and the winery’s are a family business. Port wines may be white or red and aged in barrels or in bottles. The most popular are Ruby, a fruity young red with a Ruby color; Tawny, aged a minimum of 3 years in barrels; and Late Bottle Vintage, dark in color made from the finest grapes and aged 10-15 years.

The first winery we visited was D’Origem where we not only sampled red and white wines, port, but also the olive oil they also produced on their estate.

The 2nd one was Quinta do Beijo…estate of the kiss. A 100+ year old winery where our tour guide Joao was a 5th generation wine maker. Lunch was the local cuisine of the region. The wines from both places were exceptional.

On our way back we stopped in Amarante to visit the cathedral of San Goncaio de Amarante. Both the convent and Cathedral are named after him. The women of this area with fertility issues have a great devotion to him.

This was such a special day learning something new in a beautiful place. What another great experience.