Day 12: Porto, Portugal take two

My morning was free so I hiked over . . . well actually up hill to Porto Cathedral which again was full of blue and white tile murals.

I then crossed the Douro River to Vila Nova de Gaia which is the hub of the port wine industry.  

It was a nice area where port wines have cellars and tasting lodges.  I was worried about the walk there so I went super early and was just going to hang out because there was no way I was doing that walk again!  I had a reservation for a tour at Graham's at 2:30pm.  

I passed the time by having lunch at the restaurant, VINUM.  The views were amazing and the menu was interesting in a good way.  It was a pretty fancy place to eat but decided to treat myself since I have not had many local meals this trip.  

I also had chestnut hummus with 48 hour aged sourdough and ended with a pot of mint tea!  Everything was so good!  I had some time before my tour so I just hung out on the patio soaking up the views.

I am not a drinker but when in the home of port wine you must give it a try, right?  I decided to do my tour and tasting at Graham’s.  It was beautiful even if it was a hike to get there; it was worth it!  It has been owned by the Symington family since the 1970s.  

As soon as you walk through the door the smell is amazing.  I found myself just inhaling a lot because it was just so pleasing and yummy.  I immediately learned that port wine is kept in barrels in lodges.  Cellars are for bottles.  The lodge has about 7 million liters of port wine.

It was amazing just walking around and seeing how long the port wines have been sitting . . . the family has a private collection and some ports date back to the late 1880s.  The tour ended, and it was on to the tasting room. 

There were 5 different ports and as you can tell I liked the back middle the best which was a 2003 Vintage Port.  It was so good!  I mean they were all good but this one was just the best.  Port is strong so it was a slow sipping kind of experience.  I knew I had to get back to my hotel by foot so I had to take it easy.  It was getting late, and I had an almost 3km walk back to the hotel.  I was moving fast to arrive before dark!