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Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The Douro Valley

The Douro River starts in northwest Spain and flows all the way to the Atlantic. It's rich in microclimates. All the grapes for Port are grown in the Douro River valley, tightly controlled by the Port Wine Institute. It's a truly beautiful river valley.




These are the traditional Barcos Rabelos that carried barrels of wine down the Douro to Porto for aging:



You may recognize this chap...


We visited lovely Pinhão with its tile-bedecked railroad station, with a wine shop tucked into one side:




Stopped for a winery tour and tasting at Quinta da Pacheca, which has a pretty outdoor dining area for events - notice the wine bottle and grapes carved from the trunk of a dead tree:


The Quinta uses the old method of pressing grapes: feet. Here are a series of tanks in which the local populace are pressed into service (no pun intended) to do the grape stomping:



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