My wife and I are headed for a quick three night trip to Porto. We will just be staying in the city and tasting at the Port houses there. No trips outside the city to the actual quintas.
Do the Port houses that have a tasting room in Porto proper typically have Port for sale? And if so do they typically have interesting stuff that would be worth bringing the wine luggage?
On the one hand I’m happy to travel light and won’t be checking bags otherwise. But if there’s a chance to purchase older/more interesting stuff I’d happily reconsider.
They have tastings which I would recommend, including I think Graham’s has a high end tasting where they will give you a taste of your birth year if available. Some of the houses do have older bottles for sale but I found that the pricing was the same or higher than what you could buy it for in the US, so I don’t think there is a need to hand carry things back home.
It’s been 10 years since I was last in Porto, but when there I found good deals on Colheita Tawnys. Bought my birth year (68) for about half the cost in the US.
There are a lot of retail shops. I might shy away from most of them, very tourist oriented. Some good ones however. Vinoteca e Copa de Alma is Niepoort’s shop. They have a good selection of all of Niepoort wines including table wines and from their estates in Dao and Bairrada. All the lodges will have a retail shop. My favorite wine bars are LADO Lagar d’Ouro and Vini Bacchus. Both specialize in smaller Portuguese firms. Two of my favorites smaller firms are the Quevedo and the Bulas tasting rooms. Bringing things home, I might concentrate on the small Portuguese firms that don’t export much.
Kopke is a good place to buy old Colheitas, and will have samples of a couple of older wines available for tasting at a price.
The Port lodges in Villa Nova de Gaia are generally set up to be the front door for most of the Quintas so you’d have more luck purchasing there than you would visiting many Quintas in the Douro valley itself, where outside of small group visits, tourism is a relatively new thing.
I’ve frequented Porto - 3-4x a year for the past 20 yrs. The recommendations above are pretty good. The Grahams experience is great even if more tourist oriented. Do the tour and pay for the best tasting experience. As for buying ports or wines at the shops, the best part is the ability to get those older vintages/rare ports. I never bother to get any vintage that I can get back in the states. Most all the houses have shops so trip around and enjoy the beautiful city. Also, a sunset visit for a drink on the deck of the Yeatman hotel with its amazing views is still a must every single time I am in the city.
The reality is the best experience are up in the douro. If you find you have the time to spend a day there, its well worth it and if you can do that, happy to give a whole host of rec’s.
Eric, Vini Bacchus was wonderful. We spent a couple hours there with the co-owners just talking Portuguese wine. They were just so knowledgeable and so generous with their time. Headed to LADO tonight after we get our fill on Port tastings!