Friday, April 11 2008

The Englishman's Drink

Rolling out the barrels

What a great day yesterday. It actually started Thursday, when we were hanging out on the banks of the Douro river, looking across at all the Port lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia (the south side of the river in Porto) and we ran into Colin from Winesense! He and his lovely girlfriend Suzanne are vacationing in Portugal, and we were supposed to meet on Saturday, but it just so happened that in a bustling modern city of hundreds of thousands of people he was standing only a few metres away from me.

When we did meet the next day we had an adventure visiting different Port Lodges. We saw Burmeister, Graham's, and Carem. At each one we learned something new and fascinating about the blends and vintages. For instance, Grahams sells an LBV (late-bottled vintage) Port called 'Six Grapes', and for more than 20 years I've wondered what the six grapes referred to. It turns out it's a quality declaration, like 'five stars', and Graham's is the only one that uses it.

Port is called 'The Englishman's Drink' because it's truly a creation of the English, who added brandy and sugar to barrels of Port wine so they'd endure the journey from the Douro to Blighty without spoiling. Most of the Port houses have traditionally been owned by the English, and many still are to this day. Jolly good show!

In the afternoon we wound up back on the north bank of the Douro with a bottle of Port (yep, Six Grapes) and four glasses, basking in the wonderful sunshine. Watching the river flow out into the Atlantic and the rhythm of the people of Porto was soothing and beautiful. That night we went for a Winemaker's dinner with Ramos Pinto, almost by accident. We had decided to meet Colin and Suzanne for a quiet dinner in our hotel, but when I made the reservation the hostess asked if we would like to come to a special event dinner. What the heck, I thought.

It turned out that the winemaker from R-P was there, along with their marketing director, and they explained the wine and food pairings. While it was all in Portuguese, the Chef was kind enough to come along and explain everything for us in English. Dinner took almost four hours, and involved so many wines I lost count. One pairing I really enjoyed was 'Duck three ways', with sliced grilled breast, paté de foie gras and sauteed foie gras with a port reduction, paired with a Ramos Pinto white Port.

I hadn't really had white Port before this trip, and was surprised to discover the diversity of styles. Burmeister makes a wonderful dry white port, Grahams makes a fabulous sweet white port (it's a blanc de noirs, white wine from lightly pressed red grapes) but the R-P came off like a medium-heavy Sauternes, working gorgeously with the liver. Mmm!

Mind you, the 40 year-old Tawny with the chocolate lava cake worked out pretty well too . . . and all this for 45€ per person, all in. I can't get used to how inexpensive the wines are here, and it almost seems like I'm getting away with something. Mind you, the rest of the prices make up for it!

Today? It's the gym and mineral water and dry crusts for us, or we won't fit into the airplane seats on the way home. We're going to go back up to Rua de Santa Catarina, where there are hundreds of little shops to soak up any extra Euros we might have sticking to our pockets.

Oh noes! Where will I spend my money?

Tomorrow, the Douro Valley by car! Winding roads, high-speed Portuguese truck drivers and blessed unfamiliarity with the limits of human endurance! I'm looking forward to it already.

Posted by Tim AT 7:37PM

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