Portugal and Spain

View out the door of the Airbnb
 

Rick Steves - One of Portugal's most endearing slices is the Douro River Valley, the winding, terraced region that produces the country's beloved port wine. This is Portugal's answer to Germany's romantic Rhine River Valley. But unlike the Rhine, the Douro was never a strategic military location. So, rather than castles and stony ramparts, visitors encounter farms and sleepy villages. The only thing fortified here is the wine.

The Douro region, where port is produced, stretches along the river of the same name, about 60 miles inland from the city of Porto. Riding through the region you enjoy steep, twisting valleys and tidy terraces as far as the eye can see.

The Douro Valley is the only place in the world that can legally produce what's called "port wine," thanks to the Marquês de Pombal, who demarcated the region in 1756. Visiting here, you can appreciate just how much hard work it was, and still is, to produce traditional port wine. Generation after generation, rugged farmers gradually turned these hillsides into vast terraces expertly crafted to let grape vines draw water from below and sun from above. To this day, the production of port remains a labor of love, as grapes are still generally picked by hand and crushed the traditional way - by foot - since machines are unable to achieve high-quality results.

Since port wine is a blend of several types of grapes, most port-producing vineyards, called quintas, grow a few different varieties of grapes. Unlike traditional wine, which undergoes fermentation in full, port is a fortified wine. During fermentation, brandy is added to port wine, thereby halting the process and preserving some of the sugars from the grapes. This is what gives port its signature sweetness.

After fermentation, port traditionally stays in the Douro Valley for one winter after it's made, as the cold temperatures encourage the wine and brandy to marry. It's then transported by truck to port-wine lodges in Porto, where the more humid, mild climate at sea level is ideal for aging.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View of Pinhão, the nearest city to where we were staying, and the Duoro River.