Having arrived in Porto on Friday 30 May, Simon and I had a very clear objective of doing a port winery tour and tasting. The UK have been allies with the Portuguese for over 650 years, the longest standing alliance in the world. Some would say it was so the Royal Navy could guarantee a secure source of port for the fleet - I think that maybe true! After some online research we managed to book a tour of Taylor's port lodge in Porto on Sunday. 

On Saturday we walked into the area south of the river by the Luis I bridge. We stopped for a drink and snack, the usual cheese and meats platter and four cheesy croquettes. A tasting selection of ports was available, so as a warm up to our Sunday tour, we tasted five ports - two white, one rose, one tawny and one. ruby. The rose had a thumbs down from us all. After some shopping we took a taxi back to the boat and had a quiet evening on board. 

Having had a good breakfast on the boat on Sunday, I used my Uber account to summon a taxi and take us to the Taylor's HQ ten minutes down the road. We arrived to find a beautiful colonial era setting overlooking the Douro river from the South. The tour was self-guided but assisted by an audio system in English and a small map which proved very useful. It took us two hours to complete the tour which was fascinating to learn all about the history of port wine and the British influence in the region. For a full understanding of the history look here. https://www.taylor.pt/en/about/our-history.

Of particular note are the special boats that were used to transport the port down the river from the vineyards in the upper Douro valley region to the processing facility in Porto know as a Rabelo. The same design is still used today for tours of the river. Also, the efforts that the family-owned business is now taking to combat the effects of climate change and to ensure environmental sustainability in the growing process.

After the tour we enjoyed a lovely tasting of three different types of port in the beautiful setting of their rose garden terrace. A white port (who knew they did such a thing?), a very deep red 2019 ruby port and a 10 year old tawny port. It goes without saying that after the tasting, both Simon and I visited the shop and purchased a couple of bottles each. I was also instructed to purchase some olive oil which we tasted with our bread which Taylor's also made from olive trees on their vineyards. 

After a very enjoyable tour we stopped for lunch in the riverside area and then took a taxi back to the boat again (Uber proving very useful here!)

We will stay here for another couple of days before moving onto Baiona in Spain for our next stop.

Yours Nigel