Port tasting in Porto

Rest Your Head

We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in the heart of Porto which was quite lovely with a very high rating. The concierge was highly helpful. The square outside the hotel was exquisite. If you can request a room overlooking the square, it would be a lovely view. It was just a 10-15 minute walk to the river through the streets filled with restaurants and stores.

Culinary Delights

We ate at DOP restaurant just a five minute down the hill. It came highly recommended from the concierge and has been considered for Michelin star rating. It was situated in a renovated castle and overlooked a bustling square. The sommelier was incredibly helpful, the wine was delicious and the food was spectacular. I had duck confit with truffle and mushroom risotto and also tasted the lobster rice and sea bass.

Cocktail Hour

Just around the corner from DOP is a wine bar called Prova. You can hang out on chairs outside, on cushions in the window or at tables inside. Either way, it's comfortable and has very friendly staff that can help choose an inexpensive glass of great wine from Portugal. My glass was 3.50€!

Adventure

The primary reason for my visit to Porto was to taste port and learn about where it originated. On the opposite side of the river of the main part of town are dozens of port houses and caves to learn about, explore and taste port wine. Sandeman is popular and is well known but not the best quality in the port world. I visited Churchill's first which had a gorgeous view of Porto and a concise and informative tour. We then walked over to Taylor's for a similar tasting and cellar tour (we scheduled it ahead of time through our hotel concierge). We finished at Graham’s Port Lodge.

The Intercontinental Hotel recommended a day trip to the Duoro Valley to see the vineyards that produce port wine and the delicious Portuguese wines from the region. The company, Duoro Exclusive, offered two tours- Gold and Silver (but are considering renaming them so be on the lookout for that). We took the gold tour. The compact picked us up from our hotel at 9am and we returned to the hotel at about 6:45pm. We explored the Fonseca vineyard, did a port and olive oil tasting under an orange tree, took a boat ride down the Duoro River and had lunch, ironically, at DOC. DOC Duoro is the sister restaurant by the same chef, Rui Paula, to DOC where we are dinner the night before. DOC is not to be missed if you visit the Duoro region. It has a extraordinary view over the river (literally situated on a dock over the river) of the vineyards and dynamite food and wine. We had a pre-fixed menu with our tour but were allowed to adjust the menu if we wanted to for whatever reason. Anna, our guide, was incredibly knowledgable and enjoyable to spend the day with. I would highly recommend the tour which cost $180 per person. The Silver experience is slightly less as you go to a tavern instead of a fancy restaurant with other slight differences.

Duoroexclusive.com

We took a Red Bus City Sightseeing route around Porto, but the pickup times were quite spread apart in Porto when we were there.

Lastly, the architecture around the city is fantastic. The churches are the most beautiful I've ever seen with their blue and white traditional tiling. Make time to just wander around and explore.