Up and picked up for our full day tour of the Duoro valley which is the main area for the production of port wine in Portugal. We shared our bus with four French speaking Canadians from Montreal and a honeymoon couple (Richard and Louise) from Ireland/UK. It was a good group and we headed out to Pinha, stopping on the way for a couple of scenic photos. I have no idea how they grow grapes (or anything for that matter) for the ground is basically just slate. The vines are up to 100 years old and have roots which go down up to 30m. Our first tasting of wine was at Quinta do Jalloto where we tasted wine (not port wine) – white, rose and red and had some great views from the winery which was at the top of the some ridiculously windy and narrow roads – at some points I felt we were going to go over the edge, but fortunately we did not 😊. From there we went down and had an hour river cruise with three others 8-seater buses – a good group and very relaxing. Then off to a nice restaurant for lunch and then a port wine winery, Quinta de Marrocos, a family business and we had one of the family take us through the process and then a tasting of four different port wines. Then the hour back to Porto. The main roads in Portugal are quite amazing because so much of the landscape is so hilly there are some incredible bridges to try and shorten journeys – huge concrete structure so far up in the air.
