I only want to visit one since we'll be going on to Douro Valley & visiting Quinta do BomFim and Quinta Nova. Which experience and port wine did you especially appreciate? Taylor and Graham's both look good, but I do not know much about their ports. Thank you for your review.

We rather liked Calem. Don't miss the port chocolates.

We also enjoyed Real Companhia Valha and Quevdo, which had free Fado on Sunday.

I would vote for Taylor - I just bought a bottle of their LBV. See if you can get a reservation at their restaurant - https://www.taylor.pt/us/visit-taylo...ate-restaurant

I think they are all the same. They used to be very usefull, when visits were free and you had the tasting at the end (just 3 small glasses of each kind of Port wine). We, university students, used to go there because money for alcohol was not much, this was a way to get some alcohol for free. Then tourists arrived and ruined students way of living drinking for free. I had to see, many times, the movie of the crops and harvest and other things, and had to visit the laboratory, before finally they gave me my drink for free. Now, I wouldn't go to anyone not even if they paid me! After all, I already know everything about groing grapes, wich I'm not interested. If it is to drink and pay, well... there are lots of places where to do it. All around town.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts. I’m inclined to agree with Helenafatima and just enjoy a drink while out & about since we’ll be getting two tours in the Duoro Valley and that’s one too many. I would’ve picked a great lunch at Taylor, but we already have a tasting dinner elsewhere that night so a light lunch is in order.

Agree with Helen, also note that port is aged and bottled not in the Douro Valley but downstream in Gaia.

There are lots of places to taste wine and port wine. I can remember 3 (that people say are good): Sogevinus, at Rua das Flores; Chocolateria Equador (Rua Sousa Viterbo, near Ferreira Borges) - they serve Port wine with chocolates aside (buy the spicy chocolate, it's delicious); Morro D'Amores: a taste of 6 different wines (green wine, regular table wine and Port Wine), served with cheese and some other things, the cost was 10 euros a month ago, now I don't know - it's at Rua da Bainharia, Sé neighbourhood. At Gaia, Porto Cruz has a roof top bar, where you can drink their wine (or water, juices, etc). Visiting a cellar is funny, for the cultural part of the thing. You visit the laboratory, watch a movie of Douro Valley, walk along the caves with the barrels, learn wich wood is better, etc. It's not exactly to drink but to learn!

After finding which one you like most, just buy a bottle or two in a store. Open that bottle to drink the wine for itself - it is not used as wine to go with a meal. It is an aperitif or diggestif. There are many ways to drink Port, neither is with the main meal. British, for what I've red in some novels, use (used) to soak a biscuit in the Port, sorve it, and then drink a litle (or a lot), and again. Portuguese, for what I know, just drink it alone or with păo-de-ló, a tradicional cake.

Helena

I am British (although I now live in the US). I have never heard of the biscuit thing, but the British very definitely (as I have posted here before) drink port with cheese, after dinner. The British were responsible for the development of port, as a way to preserve the wine during the voyage to England. Americans also drink it with chocolate, which seems to work as well, but port and Stilton is a classic pairing.

Thanks for more info where & how to taste. Chocolates get my vote!
Hoping that this deadly heat and fires pass soon.

My english is poor, so sometimes I get lost. Even so, I would like to to say that to me British were not responsible for the development of Port, they were responsible to create it. Although maybe by chance, but they were responsible to create Port wine. Developing, (in my portuguese brain) is a different thing, something already created but yet improved. But as far as I know (family stories and visits to the caves), our oldest allies, the British, used their imagination trying to preserve portuguese wine (that usually arrived in UK as vinegar), and so Port wine was created.

If you want to make a distinction between creating and developing, I would say that the British were significantly involved in both.

Suggest reading: https://www.taylor.pt/us/what-is-por...istory-of-port

And: https://www.taylor.pt/us/about/our-history

Thank you so much, very usefull links, and as usual from you, a very nice answer. And very polite, of course. Yes, you are a very welcome card from British.

Thank you - no wish to put down the Portuguese - both were important, and there is a long and friendly relationship to be celebrated. But definitely cheese with port (but on no account a main course!).

Several years ago a flight attendant suggested I try some port along with chocolate sauce over vanilla ice cream. I was a bit skeptical at first but it was delicious!

Thursdays , very interesting & thorough reading from Taylor…guess I can skip the museum tour!