Port in Porto

Yesterday morning I arose to see what I could of porto before I left. It's a very beautiful city, the old town is very steep on cliffs going down to the river. In fact, the old town is a Unesco world heritage site. All of the houses here are completely covered with tile and have a distinctly portugese look to them. The old city walls are visible as well and still have a forboding presence to them. Everyone had told me that I must try port in porto so I headed across the bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia where the port cellars are.

I took a tour of Sandeman which is one of the top port and sherry distributers. It was a good tour and they explained the process of port well. Aparently port was "discovered" in the late 17th century as english soldiers would add brandy to their wine to preserve it as they took long trips up river, apparently they aquired a taste for it and port was born. To make port you stop the fermentation process of the grapes very quickly (2-3 days after it is started) with the addition of a neutral colored brandy. This keeps the wine sweet (because the sugars in the grapes haven't been converted into alcohol) but strong (as the brandy raises the alcohol content of the wine).

There are three types of port a white port which is used as a apertif and may be mixed with tonic and lemon, a tawny which is lighter in color and spicier and best served with dried fruits and nuts, and the most famous, the rudy port which is very dark and full bodied and served with strong cheeses and fruits or chocolate. I tried the first two at sandeman and then headed to another cellar, Croft, to try the third.

I liked all three quite a bit, which surprised me because I haven't liked port when I've had it in the past but I guess that is the difference between getting good port, in porto and cheap port in seattle. I bought a bottle of the white and headed back into the old town of porto where I did some more exploring before I had to catch my train to Lisbon.