Day four in Portugal and time for our trip in the
Douro region, where port (and other wine) is made. We had to book and pay for
all our flights, transport, and accommodation before we could start the trip or
the Portuguese would not give John his visa, VSF the visa agency told us,
despite Lynne being an EU citizen. On the application form it says that family of EU citizens do not need all this. VFS said that this does not apply to Portugal.
As we have detailed before, VFS told us right up to the time of our departure that John's passport was at the Portuguese Embassy in Johannesburg. Lynne found out that it was at the Consulate in Cape Town and we collected it there. VFS sent us an email on the day we arrived back home to say that the visa was ready for collection. It expired less than a week later. He was given a 34 day visa. The shortest ever before that was a year.
John had booked a Renault Megane with a large
boot and, more importantly, with SatNav as standard equipment. This Opel Astra was the only car we were
told we could have when we arrived at the InterRent office near the airport in Porto. We rented an Opel Astra estate in Holland last year and it had SatNav fitted. No
sign of the Renault we had booked and paid for. First they tried to palm us off
with a car with no spare wheel, and given we were going to be doing a round
trip through Portugal and Spain for nearly a month, we insisted on a car with a
functioning spare. They also tried to charge us another €20
a day for a Garmin, even though we had paid for one. Lynne filmed the woman who
was being so intractable and difficult and then suddenly someone else took over
and this car was produced. It had a full-sized spare wheel, not a “Marie biscuit”
emergency wheel. But no SatNav. We were going to have to rely on Google Maps on
John’s phone. And thereby hangs a long and sad tale which nearly ruined our
trip to the Douro. InterRent is owned by Europcar
We were close to the Porto IKEA,
so we had lunch there first before we started the trip. Duck Rice, a Super Bock
beer and we shared the divine Swedish chocolate layered dessert. This IKEA is located
in a huge shopping centre and we needed to buy warmer clothes. Lynne flew
around the shops and came back with four new sweaters, one for John, and a pair
of leggings to wear under her thin trousers. Prices were very reasonable, as
they had spring sales on to clear the winter clothing
Onward to the Douro to find its
port and wine. The trip was quick and the A roads are very good, but they are
tolled. We stopped along the way to see the roadside spring flowers and,
unexpectedly, found several orchids. (Lynne is an amateur botanist)
Olive trees on spring grass
and lovely hill towns
One of the orchids growing alongside
the road. We are sure a friend who knows these things will help identify it
A rare straight section of road. Roads in the Douro Valley are narrow and follow the topography, so they wind up and down
Rain and sunshine accompanied
our journey
We went to the very far end of
the Douro as, the following day, we had an appointment at Duorum wines in Castelo
Melhor, which is near the Spanish border. Hotels and AirBnBs were very scarce
in the area, so we stayed in a Hostel in Vila Nova de Foz Coa for the night, to be near the Quinta
Raining and bitterly cold, but
with lovely views across the valleys
Our room was warm and comfortable
and very cheap. It was well away from the dormitories filled with a school
soccer group. It had its own bathroom and included breakfast. Through
Booking.com it cost R556 for the night. Not what we would normally stay in, but
very adequate and fine in a pinch
We tried to find a restaurant
for supper but this one, recommended to us, was closed …
… so we ended up in the Sunset
Bar,
ate hamburgers and chips – the
choice was this or pizza
and joined the locals watching
another football match as we ate
Breakfast the next morning with
that school group, quite well behaved
The queue for breakfast moved
quickly. Breakfast was cereal, bread rolls, jam, butter, ham and cheese and a
hot drink
We encounter the hairy hill roads of
the Douro
Freezing fog
and, after a while and twice
retracing our steps, we arrived at the Quinta de Castelo Melhor. We had met the
one of the owners of Duorum wines, João Portugal Ramos with his wife and son at
an excellent tasting of their wines at Muratie in Stellenbosch recently and
he very kindly invited us to visit this part of their wine growing operation
in Portugal
They are very high in this part
of the Douro and have vineyards facing in different directions to get the best out
of the terroir and the different grape varieties
This is the building in which we
tasted the wines
Early Spring, and not yet much
bud break
Muddy hoofprints - of goats or
deer?
We hope this small snake was
hibernating; it had obviously been attracted by the warmth of the light
A lovely view from the farm
house, the Douro River is below. Far below
We were there to meet João
Perry Vidal who is the Oenologist (winemaker and viticulturist) for this Duorum
farm. He gave us a very good tour of the vineyards, a perspective on what it
is like to make wine in such a difficult area and a wine tasting. And they do
make very good wine here
Beautifully furnished with a
small vinoteque in the breakfront bookcase
An illustrated map of the Douro
River. Porto is on the left; Castelo Melhor is far to the right
Risking vertigo, the magnificent
Douro River far below the vineyards
The effort, extreme
engineering, skill and bravery needed to break the ground for these near
vertical vineyards in these shale soils is amazing. This is the top of the
hill, with the water reservoir. They pump the river water all the way up here
and that also requires extreme engineering
Old sleepers from the now extinct
railway line, made into a pathway
No mechanical picking on these
slopes
and future slopes for vines
Bad weather coming in, it did
bring snow to the high hills and mountains
The farm has biodiversity
status
The start of bud break
on well-established vines
An old olive that was brought
up here and transplanted. They are planting trees so that the vineyard workers
will have shade in the hot harvest time
The bees were buzzing in the
lavender …
and John’s camera was getting
them in fine macro detail on the rosemary
We then climbed into João’s 4x4
bakkie and travelled down the road to the riverside
Amazing vineyards
João told us all about how the
farm was found by José Soares Franco, then bought and developed by him and his
partner Jose Portugal Ramos. They took a risk on land that was not under vine
and it has certainly paid off
You can see a tributary joining
the main river
A Griffon vulture searching for
a meal (or is it a Lammergeyer?)
Magnificent dry stone walls,
some are new but others are centuries old
The shale is quite friable on
certain planes
Down we
travelled to the old station house
A young fruit tree, probably from a
fruit pip discarded by a grape picker, we were told
The railway line was taken away
several years ago, the tunnels remain
Down on the riverside at last.
It was quite a ride down!
Another orchid
Derelict, but soon to be
renovated
White Iris
We found lots of wild asparagus
growing here and picked some for supper
So peaceful
A natural rock
wall made by uplift
Duorum Wines
Climbing back up the slope in
the car. The camera does not do justice to the steepness of the slope
Back to the farm house
They make excellent olive oil
and we tasted some on arrival
The 2017 Duorum Tons white blend which had
just been released. Made from five different grapes: Rabigato · Viosinho ·
Verdelho · Arinto de Bucelas · Muscatel, some grown here and ‘across the road’.
300 000 bottles. It is aromatic and floral from the 10% muscat. Fresh, grapey
with elderflower hints, it is a crisp refreshing food wine full of limes and
lemons with some minerality and a little drying chalk. €4.
Then we tasted the Tons 2016 Red.
It is full of fruit, mulberry, cherry, raspberry; young with fresh fruit on the
palate, light with a little soft chalky tannin on the end. Good with red meat. Touriga
Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz €7
The 2015 Duorum Colheita made
from Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz. Partly wooded with no
new oak, elegance with black plums and cherries, a beautiful nose, with incense
wood, sharp crisp fruit on the palate, blackberries, mulberries, then some
salty licorice; it finishes on plums, soft chalky tannins and minerality. A good
year. €14/15
We really
enjoyed our visit but then it was time to go and seek some lunch
Duorum co- owner José Soares
Franco recommends his guests try the Foz Coa Museum restaurant and it turned
out to be a very good recommendation. In a square concrete building, it has
great glass windows with lovely views and an outside terrace for good weather,
which we did not have. It was 2.30 pm but we were welcomed
Great views
The winding road we had to take
to Pinhao after lunch, where we would be staying for the next two nights
We ordered the Prato del Dia
and while we were waiting we were encouraged to try their excellent Chousas
Nostras extra virgin olive oil. It was superb, fresh, green and young, served
with green olives and good bread. You do need a small mortgage for a bottle
We ordered a
bottle of the house wine, Douro D.G. Tinto 2015. Robust and fruity, it went
well with the dish
Pork neck steak, topped with
herbs and a garlic paste, almost a chimichurri; great flavour, tender meat if a
little fatty. We excavated the nuggets of meat. Boiled potatoes which had been
kept in a fridge, as they had that sweet flavour. There was lots of garlic on
this plate, we love it. It came with a cooked cabbage and ham ‘salad’ and a sausage
of note! Crisp on the outside and creamy in the centre. It’s called a
Farinheira, (literal translation is a flour sausage). We were told its history
goes back to the Romans who had to provide meat for the locals. They mixed
flour and pork fat with herbs and spices to save meat and it satisfied them. Absolutely
delicious. So much better for you than polony
They provided a complimentary dish of seared potatoes that were much better
Dessert was an almond tile with
an almond ice cream with the texture of a semi freddo and some chocolate sauce.
With this they offered us a complimentary glass of their home made port. Spicy
raisins, cinnamon and cloves - young. Hot, thick and very fruity, almost mince
pies. Not a keeper but satisfying. We had a great waiter/sommelier by the name
of Carlos Videda, who spoke good English and explained the food to us. The bill including wine (Portugal doesn't tip) was €27.50
The ruined hilltop castle of
Castelo Melhor above the village which shares its name
The winding road
Orchards and farmland with
snowy mountains in the distance
And a rainbow as the storm swept
East
Another castle
More steep valleys and
vineyards and early blossom
And after a disastrous session
with Google Maps where we got totally lost for hours, we just could not find
our AirBnB Quinta. Lynne got totally freaked by a near car accident, and the vertiginous
narrow streets in the high hillside village and preferred to walk. We met the
village inhabitants and half of them in procession led her down the hill to our
Vila Branca (means White house) and the code worked on the door. Trade
Descriptions Act applies to this small house, nothing in the description was
true. Somehow these people have engineered this house to be the most photogenic
house we have ever seen. Honestly, it looks nothing like this, it was furnished
in the 1950’s by Granny, now deceased, and the relatives have just let it out
as is, tatty furniture, plastic flowers and all.. This bed had nylon sheets on
it, so we chose another with better linen, and furthest from the cellar opening.
Each bed had four heavy blankets on it. We needed them all
In reality it was small and
pokey, and freezing cold. The wine cellar with open concrete kuipe was in the
basement, down those stairs on the left, no door, so open totally to the ground
floor. We had a fire but could only find wet wingerdstokkies (vine branches) in
the garden, which smoked and took ages to light. Then the fire gave all
the heat to the heavens
It was the sensational views
from the balcony that had made us book this house. But it was so cold and rainy
we couldn’t open the shutters or go outside. Luckily we’d had a good lunch in
Foz Coa and had brought some food with us for a light supper. In the kitchen
NOTHING worked: kettle, microwave, stove, oven, two coffee machines, toaster,
hot plate - all were broken. Oh, the electric braai grill did! Breakfast water
would be boiled on that. But how would John make real coffee? We retired early,
almost fully clothed, with our books and two screw capped wine bottles full of
hot water to warm the damp sheets and our feet. It had to get better…. We
collapsed into giggles at the whole situation
And, next morning, there would
be a surprise….
All our stories can be opened from the archive list near the top of the column on the right
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