Today is a ‘free day’ in that there are no organized hikes and everyone is welcome to plan to do sightseeing, hiking or just relaxing. Our group has been thinking about options and since we have cars we are very flexible. What w decided for today was to do a Port wine just north of Reguo. Wes was able to get some information from the information center and with the help of the internet we generated a plan to visit two port vineyards and have lunch out.
We headed out to find the Fonseca Porto. Guimaraens was founded in 1822, when Manuel Pedro Guimaraens acquired control of the Fonseca & Monteiro Company through purchase of the majority of the Fonseca holdings. As a condition of the sale of his shares to Guimaraens, the departing Fonseca stipulated that his name be retained.
Not long after this purchase, Manoel Pedro Guimaraens, a supporter of the liberal cause in the 'War of the Two Brothers', was forced to flee Portugal hidden in an empty port wine cask. He settled in England, where his company remained based until 1927, when the headquarters of the firm returned to Portugal.
During this period, Fonseca grew rapidly in reputation and importance. By 1840, the firm had become the second largest shipper of Port Wine and in 1847 the first Fonseca vintage port was shipped to England.
Family has been a part of every Fonseca Vintage Port. Frank Guimaraens made all the vintages beginning with the 1896 through to the 1948. His daughter, Dorothy Guimaraens, following his death, made the 1955. Bruce Duncan Guimaraens, great-great grandson of the founder, made every Vintage from 1960 through to the 1992. As for the 1994 Vintage, Bruce Guimaraens’ son, David Guimaraens was responsible for this extraordinary award winning port wine. This remarkable continuity of winemaker is clearly evident in the wine.
Port wine is a fortified wine originating from the Douro Valley in the North of Portugal. To solve the problem of tainted wines arriving in Britain, the shippers began adding brandy to stabilise the wine on its journey. Later on in history they began to use neutral grape spirit to preserve the natural flavours of the wine. The sweet Port wine that we know and love today, evolved over several decades, as the demand in Britain for sweeter ‘Porto’ wines increased. Sales to Great Britain were further helped by the Methuen treaty of 1703, which gave Portuguese wines a trade advantage over the heavily taxed French wines, due to the poor relations at that time between France and Britain.
Traditionally winemaking in the Douro has involved the fermentation of grape must, using simple and empirical methods, in stone ‘lagares’ or treading tanks, to produce ‘Port Wine’. Although this traditional method is still the reference point for producing quality port wine, the port wine industry has utilized many other methods in its long history.
Ok, now that I have given a bit of the history and method of making port I can talk about our tour. We arrived to find our way to the front office where we were given MP3 headsets and a map so we could do a self-directed tour with detailed explanations through the vineyard itself. We found the heat very oppressive today since it has become very humid as well as hot (about 30 degrees) so our tour around the vineyard was not as extensive as we may have wished. But we did have a chance to walk along the terraced rows. We listened to the explanations of the different ways of creating terraces and the resulting methods of planting the vines. In very steep areas the vines are planted in a vertical line rather than horizontal. For the horizontal there is a question of how wide to make the terraces, how many rows on each terrace and the slope of the land. I am not going to give much more explanation than that since it can be become very technical.
We returned to the main office to have a look at the port making shed but this time of year is the wrong time to see port being made. We did get a chance to see some of the equipment used including a stomping vat, the fermenting concrete basins and large storage oak vats.
Our final visit was the port tasting. We were given a taste of Siroco White Port which is described as:
“A full, dry white port with a superb balance of ripe fruit extract, delicate acidity and elegant notes of wood aging; finishing with an attractive, refreshing crispness.” And we all agreed that this was excellent and a new item to be added to our list of potential drinks.The second port we were offered for tasting was the Bin 27 which is described as:
“Fonseca Bin nº27 was created over a century ago for family consumption, and only released commercially in 1972. It is produced primarily from wines from Fonseca’s own quintas in the Cima Corgo and thus shows an exceptional quality and consistency from year to year. Blended from reserve wines selected for their superb fruit character and depth of color, it’s well-knit structure, rich, velvety full body and luscious blackcurrant and cherry flavors, also dominant in the bouquet, finish on an intense, lingering note.” We found this also to be exceptional.
When we finished the tour and port tasting we were ready to pay only to learn that everything is complimentary. The tour and wine tasting is no charge but now we all took the time to pick up some small bottles of port to take with us. I should add that the cost of port here is so cheap we really did not believe it. Wes and I bought 6 small bottles (about 6 ounces each) for 7.20 euro. Unfortunately for Helen and I we were designated drivers so we were only able to take a couple of tasting sips of the Port. Oh well we will have some for happy hour tonight.
After we left we discussed going onto the second Port vineyard for a tour but everyone felt that we would not be able to top what we had just experienced and so decided to head on to Pinhao for lunch. This community is beside the river and we were able to find a great place to eat lunch. The train station in the community has beautiful ceramic tile pictures.
After dinner some wanted to carry on up the road to do a bit of exploring while others wanted to head back to Reguo so they could go to the museum and check out one of the river cruises. So with two cars we were able to split up and do both. I brought some back to town which gave me some time to work on the blog while Wes went with the others for a bit more car touring.
About 10 minutes after I got back into the hotel room I heard thunder. I looked out the window to see lightening and heard thunder as the skies opened up and the storm that we had been expecting arrived. The clouds blew in quickly but the rain was welcomed as we hope the heat and humidity would relieved after this rainstorm. The storm lasted about 30 minutes and then dissipated to reveal the sun and broken clouds again.
Wes’ group on the car tour missed the rain but did find some really good views of the valley and a blooming cactus.
We finished the day with dinner and plans for tomorrow’s hike. Wes is feeling much better today so he is planning on going on the easy hike tomorrow. He will reassess in the morning.
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