Port wine in the Douro Valley

The Alto Douro is no casual vineyard. It’s the oldest officially demarcated wine region in the world, and long before fancy appellations, the Romans were planting vines along the Douro river’s steep banks.

After being stored in the valley during the winter, the wine used to be shipped in barrels on flat-bottom boats called rabelos down the river to Vila Nova de Gaia, where it would rest in cellars thick with the weight of centuries.

But barrels leak. Time and water steal purity and punch. So they fortified it with more alcohol, giving birth to the early dry ports, something that could survive the long journey.

A rabelo boat on the Douro river near Pinhao.

I have followed the old trail of the barrels. Boarded a rabelo on the Douro, felt the river’s rhythm and visited quintas (vineyards) tucked into precipitous slopes where vines cling as though life depends on it.

I tasted port in Vila Nova de Gaia too, in cellars with walls blackened by generations of dust, where each barrel sighs under age.

View of Pinhao, the epicenter of port wine in Douro Valley.

The Douro area is protected by the mountain range Serra do Marão which lessens the precipitation, making way for cold winters and hot summers. The soil is made up of schist rock, rich in nutrients. Hot sun scorches, winters bite. On top of all these qualities, the beauty of the Douro river carving its way through the hills.

No wonder that people have been making wine here for two thousand years.