Olá! We took a little Lisbon break and road-tripped to wine country for a few days. Stayed two nights in Porto, with a day trip to Douro Valley for wine tasting.

Porto

We rushed our way through Porto in about half a day. I really liked the city and would suggest staying longer if you are planning a trip to Portugal. We went into zero museums or churches, and instead went to “the most beautiful bookstore in the world” and a port tasting.

Livraria Lello (the bookstore) is really beautiful, and really packed with tourists. But worth checking out. It’s old and there is some vague J.K. Rowling association.

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Port is a big deal here, as it is exclusively produced in the Douro region of Portugal (or so I’ve been told; no fact checking). Some thoughts on port. It is . . . okay . . . . It tastes a little like a tastier version of cough syrup. It’s just very sweet and syrupy (which you would think I’d be happy about). Dan asked every single Portuguese person we met how often they drink port and the answer was always “Christmas and holidays,” and then they would say it all gets exported to the UK.

Highly recommend port tasting at Taylor’s. You sit outside in a rose-filled courtyard, and these two fowl friends entertain you.

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Douro Valley

On Saturday, we drove about an hour inland to Douro Valley for the wine. Our friend Cathy gave us wonderful recommendations on wineries and a lunch spot, and we had such a great day! Here’s a map of our route and stops if anyone wants to copy.

First, we did a tour and tasting at Quinta do Vallado. We had a nice group of people on the tour, and met new friend Kathryn from Chicago who is traveling solo for awhile, and some of the owners of Ram’s Gate Winery in Sonoma.

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Lunch at DOC, it was tasty and beautiful. Lunch views.

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Then we went to try some wine here:

Before finishing up at Quinta do Pacheca.

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Based on tasting wine at three out of hundreds of wineries, I’ve learned that this area (maybe all of Portugal) likes a blend. There are something like 200 different kinds of grapes in Portugal and we heard of wines that blended 35 different grapes (again, no fact checking). We drank mostly reds, and I won’t even try to describe the wine, other than by comparison to California wines. It is not as “bold” or “robust” as what we are used to getting in CA. That’s the best I can do. See if you can find some on a menu at home and give it a try!

We made it home safely from the Valley, and on Sunday headed to the beach in Porto before heading back to Lisbon.

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We then had two days to eat as much Pastel de Nata as we could before heading to Florence.