La Dolce Vita Wine Tours

The Douro Valley

Spotlighting Port & the New Breed of Portugese Wine

Slide Show:

Our DOURO VALLEY tour begins with 2 days in beautiful Oporto, Portugal’s second largest city.
A guided walking tour hits the highlights, from the cathedral to the lively food market
The Douro rivers is lined with flat-bottomed rabelos , which once carried wine from the vineyards to the aging lodges
And now, time for some tasting!
We begin at Graham’s. Here, the vats for aging Ruby Port.
8 glasses? No problemo! Line ’em up!
A crash course in ruby vs tawny.
In addition to Graham’s, our two days in Oporto include visits to Calem, Ramos Pinto, Kopke & Taylor.
On day 3 we move upstream to the vineyards. Here, Dolce Vita’s Pat Thomson (center left) and guests have a tasting at the legendary Quinta Malvedos.
Here, the new face of the Douro: Niepoort’s Quinta do Napoles.
Niepoort is a historic Port firm, but has also moved into dry table wine
Niepoort winemaker Carlos Raposo personally guides us through the winery.
Niepoort leads “The Douro Boys,” spearheading the rise of top-quality table wines in the Douro.
Our visit to Niepoort includes a homemade lunch.
After lunch they bring out the vintage Port, along with gooey cheese & homemade marmalade. Yum!
A guest finds the sweet spot on Niepoort’s winery dog.
Another member of the Douro Boys is the buoyant Christian Van Zeller, owner of Vale Dona Maria
The Tedo tributary flows into the Douro River, covered in mist.
Quinta do Tedo, owned by a family from Burgundy, is among the Port producers that sprung up after a change in Port laws in 1987.
A cellar walk-through at the boutique-sized Quinta do Tedo.
Quinta do Tedo’s terraced vineyards in spring.
All aboard! A tour highlight is the train from Pinhão to Vesuvio, which passes through some of the most spectacular stretches of the Douro.
A view from the train of Warre’s terraced vineyards
The Douro is known for its terraced vineyards, often buttressed with schist walls.
Way upstream, the Vesuvio wine estate has its own train stop.
Dona Antonia was Portugal’s answer to Veuve Clicquot, being the largest landholder in the Douro.
Quinta do Vesuvio was Dona Antonia’s favorite among her 30 wineries. Is it any wonder?
At Vesuvio, Port is still made the old-fashioned way—with foot-treading in granite lagars.
The aging casks for Vesuvio’s single-quinta Port.
Jackie Dias from Symington, our gracious host at Quinta do Vesuvio, offers the succulent 1996.
Afterwards, we motor across the river to the only restaurant in miles and eat with the locals
A satisfied group awaits the train home.
Domingos Alves de Sousa shows us the vineyard where is his cult wine Abandonado is born
We jump into Do Sousa’s 4-wheel drive for a white-knuckle drive through his precipitous vineyards—a ride never to be forgotten!
Cheers! Our final night features a home-cooked meal at the winery and B&B; Passadouro.
En route to the Lisbon airport, we stop by Coimbriga, a Roman settlement with a dazzling array of floor pavements.
Come again!