A Day in the Douro Valley

I think that after today, Jeremy and I have found a new place to retire. We’ll spend spring time in San Francisco, winters in Lake Tahoe (we plan to snowboard well into our 90s), summers in Nice, and the autumns? We’ll spend those in the Douro Valley. By now, Jeremy and I have had the good fortune to visit wine regions in France, Spain, and of course, California. However, not even the stunning landscapes of Bordeaux or Napa Valley, come close to competing with the beauty of the Douro.

Family Photo

To visit the Douro, we hopped in our rental care and drove  the winding and often treacherous switchback style roads from Amarante to the town of Pinhao. In total, the drive was about one hour, so this entire region is about as far from the city of Porto as Napa is to San Francisco (90 minutes).  I always love a road trip that involves drastic changes in scenery, and this trip was no exception. We started driving through the grey, cobbled streets of Amarante, initially built by the Romans and ended up in green, rolling mountains, tangled up in terraces of grapevines, and flecked with lovely white cottages with red roofing. Glorious.

Landscape

Although wines from France, Italy, and Spain dominate the  “Old World” wine scene, Portugal’s Douro valley is the world’s first demarcated wine region. Yes, the entire area is a World Heritage Site, so Jeremy was thrilled to spend an entire day engulfed in such history. The “quintas” or wineries that line both sides of the Douro river produce grapes that are unique to Portugal only – you won’t find a merlot, cabernet sauvignon, or pinot noir up here. The favorite grape of the country is Torrigas Nacional, which makes a smooth, delicious wine that is easy to drink. (Yes, large quantities have been consumed by yours truly.)

What’s really incredible is that these wines are also so affordable. We purchased a lovely 2003 tinto (red blend) from one quinta for 18 Euros. We also purchased the 2010 version of this wine and vowed to save it for two more years, when our winemaker said it will peak. (Jeremy and I have never saved a bottle of wine this long. Fingers crossed we can keep our promise. We plan to drink it on our 5 Year Anniversary – looking forward to July 3, 2015!) Even at other quintas, we purchased more excellent wines for less than 20 Euros. My favorite was Quinta do Vallado. They made a really interesting muscat that smelled like a typical muscat – very sweet – but was completely dry, even lighter than a sauvignon blanc. As our host who shared the wine with us said, “Drinking this wine is a delightful surprise!” I even liked Quinta do Vallado’s Tawny Port – it was smooth and melted like caramel in your mouth. We bought a bottle (13 Euros) to drink when our family comes out to Santa Monica to celebrate Parker’s birthday.

Speaking of Parker, wasn’t he again the star of the show all day? We actually began our day in the Douro with a boat cruise. Jeremy likes to call it a float trip, in respect for his annual guys weekend with his friends from college. On our boat, we didn’t consume nearly the amount of alcohol those guys do on their trip, but we made up for it with many, many pictures.

At first, we were a little nervous about taking Parker on the boat, but it was a smooth ride and Parker was able to walk around a lot. In doing so, he buddied up with a few men from the Netherlands who loved making different sounds that resulted in Parker laughing hysterically. Parker also flirted with a very pretty French woman, who was kissing him and holding him by the end of the trip. And because Parker has really fine tuned his hello and good-bye waving, you can imagine how much time we stood at the boat after the trip was complete, waving good-bye (au revoir, adeush, not sure what it is in Dutch…) to all of the passengers.

Party Boy 

We arrived back in Amarante 100% sober. The first time Jeremy and I went wine tasting without getting drunk. Clearly, Parker has slowed our wine tasting game considerably. We only hit up three quintas; on an average day in Napa/Sonoma, we easily make it to five or six! Oh, well. That’s life! Being 100% sober though, the last thing we wanted to do was find ourselves sitting at a restaurant being presented with“typical” Northern Portuguese food like ears or kidneys or tripe again. So we stopped by a pizzeria. It wasn’t the best pizza of our lives, but it was also free of cured meat, so we all lapped it up, including Parker. Who also broke one of the restaurant’s dishes. Our waitress, Sabrina, was great, though. She played with Parker and told us that she hopes to visit the United States one day. Since our son broker her dish, and because we also hope she makes it to America, we left a big tip.  

Tomorrow’s agenda? We have an early-morning wake-up call, as we’ll be getting on the road to pick up one of my very bestest friends (Lauren) and her son Nico for a weekend at the beach in Cascais, just outside Lisbon.