Travel alot on Easyjet, Ryanair and any other carrier that will take us to where we want to go. Ret...
Travel alot on Easyjet, Ryanair and any other carrier that will take us to where we want to go. Retired from working a Scheme Manager and lots of knocks on door to now knocking on doors of hotels.
Member since:29.07.2007
Reviews:63
Members who trust:6
We spent a wonderful long weekend in Porto. One of our places to visit if we get round to it. Whilst we where there we visited the Port Wharfs, due to the name and my love of Port.
We set off on the Sunday morning, and had a varied trip to get there by the tram, vehicular and the old trolley bus.
We travelled over the bridge designed by Eifel who designed the Eifel Tower, in fact he designed two bridges that span the Rio Douro, both well worth walking over if you have a head for heaths go on the top level if not use the lower level, your choice.
As you are on the higher level looking over the Douro River you have a vista of all of the Port houses, all the names that you have heard of at Christmas on the TV, and seen in the adverts in the papers and magazines.
We opted for “Calem” as it was open on the Sunday and the English tour was at 12-15, though the main reason being our Grandson is called Callum. I must say we had not heard of this brand of Port so we where intrigued.
The tour cost 3 Euros each. The entrance is large and spacious with wonderfully clean toilets for visitors, worth a visit in themselves.
Our guide spoke very good English and there was about twenty of us in the tour.
We started with the history of the growing of the grapes and where they come from, how they are transported now and how they where. How the process works now and how it used to be, the treading of the grapes etc.
We then went deeper into the vaults and we where shown the very large barrels that contains the port from last year’s harvest, these are enormous with markings up the side as to how many smaller barrels will be needed when they empty the large ones. All very interesting and highly educational if you want to know.
The barrels are used for 10 years and then sent off to Scotland to be used in the making of whisky, as the barrels after 10 years are past the use for port.
Our guide then told us about the different kinds of port they make and how they keep it to turn everyday port into Vintage Port.
What we found out from this trip was that white port is kept in aluminium barrels so that the colour is not taken from the old wooden barrels hence it stays white. It also stays in the barrel for 3 years.
To make their 10 year 20, 30, 40 year old port, they use a blend of port from various years, such as 12 and 8 = 20 years.
After all our senses had been heightened by walking around and smelling the beautiful aromas, we then went to the tasting room.
This is a room with long tables and benches and you are given a well earned sample of the Calem port. Wonderful!
All around you are bottles of the stuff, and prices are varied. A normal bottle can cost 8 Euro, but there are bottles there for 160 Euro plus, (see the photo added).
This was a wonderful way to spent an hour or so on a Sunday morning, the group we where with where nice and chatty, our guide was very knowledgeable and the drink at the end well worth the tour.
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