Portugal's Douro Valley

Douro Valley

The Douro River forms the mountainous Douro Valley to the east of Porto.  It is one of Portugal’s most important wine and port producing areas, with 3 primary production zones, the vino verde in the lower part of the valley, alta in the middle part and superior, the best, in the upper regions of the valley.  We have tried several wines from the superior region, which were excellent.  The wine estates are called quintas.


Pablo, Barbara, our guide, andDon

Yesterday, we spent the day in the Douro Valley, an hour’s drive from Porto.  We started the day in Pinhao, about midway up the river, at a tiny family olive oil and wine production facility in their home, D’Origem.  The family has made olive oil and wine for 4 generations.  Until recently, they pressed the olives with 2 enormous, 2 tons each, stone wheels.  Today, they use a cold press which is much faster and more efficient and, according to the owner, Pablo, who gave us the tour, just as good.  We also tasted his wines, one a dry, crisp white and the other a flavorful red, both alta wines.  Pablo’s mother lives in the old family house while he and his wife and their two sons live nearby.  The estate is at top of a high hill in a village of 250 people.

Don at lunch in Douro Valley

Lunch was one of those delicious, overwhelming wine tasting luncheons in a beautiful restaurant right next to the Douro River.  We had 4 course and 4 wines.  I drank 1 sip per tasting, but Don loved them all, so was more than sleepy on our way to our next stop.  It was a lovely day, sunny, warm, perfect along the slow-moving river (slow because we were just above one of the 6 dams along the river between the Atlantic and the Spanish border.

Next was the day’s highlight (this at 4:30 pm), a visit to a family-owned port winery, Quinta Santa Eufemia, also high above the river in a tiny village.  The fourth generation now owns the winery, passionately and proudly so.  There are 7 brothers and sisters in the current generation of owners.  We spent quite a lot of time talking to one of the sisters-in-law, who works her tail off at the winery, and one of the sisters (both are also French teachers in a nearby town) about how the family works together, who makes decisions and how, what they are going to do about passing the estate down to the next generation of 12 children (they don’t want to even talk about that now even though the kids range from 17 to 22—it’s too difficult right now).

church at Santa Eufemia port winery

This winery does everything by hand, including the traditional stomping of the grapes by human feet.  Our guide, the sister-in-law we talked to, said it takes 2 hours per batch of grapes to stomp out all the juice if there are 6 people stamping.  If she does this alone, it takes her 4 hours.  You know you are finished when you feel the stone underneath your feet throughout the large granite bin, which holds 3 ½ tons of grapes (the other bin holds 4 tons).  The grapes must be stomped as soon as they are picked because, for Port, you must control the fermentation so carefully in order to get the right amount of sugar (fermentation must be stopped in 2 – 4 days, by adding brandy with 70% alcohol to 7% alcohol port).  Before the grapes are transferred to the granite bins, they must have all the debris, such as leaves and stems removed.  Human hands remove the leaves; a machine removes the stems.  During the harvest, outside workers come in for 8 hours per day.  Other family members work round the clock, giving one another breaks, to make sure the grapes get mashed and the port ferments just the right time.  One sister is the wine maker, tasting and blending carefully to get just the right flavors and quality.

Santa Eufemia logo

After the stomping process, the mash is immediately moved to a spinner, which removes the seeds and any additional debris, before being transferred to large stainless steel tanks where the juice is removed after a couple of days, once the sediments have sunk to the bottom of the tank.

village across Douro River

Next stop is oak barrels, very old, some as old as 200 years, most small for particular vintages, some very large for blended ports.  Here the port remains for years of decades.  Periodically, the barrels must be scraped clean, a hazardous task.  One family member squeezes into the huge barrels for no more than 10 minutes at a time because there is no air circulation inside and scrapes quickly while another family member keeps watch outside.  Our guide’s son does this right now, which makes her very anxious.  Scraping one of the large barrels takes 2 to 3 days.  Quite a task in 10 minute spurts, squeezing yourself in and out of an opening barely large enough for small shoulders to work in a hot, humid, overwhelmingly alcoholic environment.

The family bottles their own wines.  Each bottle has a number provided, for a fee, by the port wine regulatory body of the Douro Valley.  Losing a bottle to a damaged label is very costly.  We tasted 4 ports, all excellent, including one tawny port that was 40 years old and the best of all.  If you are in the Douro Valley, I recommend this quinta highly—very interesting business, excellent ports, best of all, the family.