You may have noticed we didn't do much posting in Porto. Pretty early on we decided it'd be best to do a single Porto post rather that one per day. Was it because there wasn't much to write about? Quite the opposite! Porto was by far the highlight of our time in Portugal, and we didn't want to take time away from the wonderful city.

I've broken this post down into sections in attempt to best convey Porto in all it's glory.

The City and Landscape

Gaia and Oporto

Porto, technically named Oporto ("Porto"), is an aptly named port city, just down river from the Atlantic Ocean. The city is most known for its Oporto Style Wine, hereafter known as port, which is grown and harvested in the wine region up river and shipped to Porto to age.

This shipping process used to involve trecherous voyages by boat, but these days the wine is shipped more safely by truck, and the river itself is mostly used for tourism.

Technically all of the port wine aging is done in Gaia, the city across the Duoro river from Porto. While you can surely taste port wine in Porto proper, all of the major winery tasting rooms, such as Taylor's, Graham's, Ferriera's, etc, are across the river in Gaia. We stayed in Gaia, which afforded us the necessity of crossing the enormous bridge to get into city center. Porto and Gaia have tons of hills, and we could either take the bridge from the upper section close to our AirBnB, or the lower section close to the wine tasting rooms and the river's edge.

The Bridge Between Porto and Gaia

Last bridge photo - this time from Porto back to Gaia.

We spent a fair amount of time on the top of the bridge, taking photos of the landscape below.

Gaia

We walked around Gaia around sunset, and the scenery was stunning.

and here's Gaia at night -

Porto Proper

Porto itself ia beautiful inside the city as well. We've already seen the waterfront -

But the city iself itself has the look and feel of beautiful buildings stacked on top of eachother. The city itself is incredibly walkeable, if you're okay with the occasional enormous hill. Tons of plazas and old buildings with beautiful tiles. The city felt alive with more to offer than just tourism. Cars drove through the city, though jay-walking culture was strong. I approved.

The Art

The city was also covered in tasteful urban art. And these are just some of our favorites -

While we're on the subject of art - there were also street performers galore

The Hills

I'd be remiss to not have a small section devoted to the hills of Porto. They are enormous and steep.

Claire and I got our fair share of exercise going down to the waterfront and then trudging back up. There are feniculars we could have taken, but we appreciated the free gym membership.

The Food

Food in Porto was quite good, and we quickly found our favorite restaurants to frequent. The first restaurant was Cafe Conga, a ridiculously cheap and unpretentious eatery that served greasy almost-fast-food.

The standout dish there is the Bifana, a sandwich of thinly sliced pork boiled in spicy oil served on a roll for two euros and twenty cents.

Maaaan these were good. We went back twice for lunch, and back for our last dinner. For our last dinner, in addition to a Bifana, I ordered Pika-Pau. It was a dish I'd seen on lots of local menus, and soon learned it was basically a meat salad without any greens. Zero complaints.

The second place we went to multiple times was the Sandiera Do Porto, a small and hip sandwich shop serving affordable sandwiches while playing Little Dragons, Rhye and Pretty Lights over the sound system. Our first the there, Claire and I split a salad and sandwich. Our second time, (photographed below), I got a Goat Cheese, Walnut and Honey sandwich.

Another night we went to Cafe Santiago so I could try another local delicacy, the francesinha sandwich. It's basically the ARE YOU HUNGRY Fat Sandwich of Portugal - a sandwich layer with bread and meat, covered in cheese, covered in gravy, topped with an egg and surrounded by fries, eaten with a fork.

I wouldn't attempt one again, but I'm glad to have checked it off my list.

The last food item to report is the cuttlefish I tried at this hole-in-the-wall place we tried. Cuttlefish has to be the strangest meat I've ever eaten. It towed the line between chewy and tender, providing my teeth resistence until suddenly giving way. Another food item I'm happy to check off this list, and to propably shy away from int he future.

The Wine

Onto the good part, right? We tried a fair amount of port style while in Porto. One of the first things we did when arriving in Porto was to pick up a bottle of lower end Tawny from Ferriera - and while it was lower end, it was still quite nice. We were rather ignorant of what made port port at the time, but that was soon to change.

An Overview of Port Wine

Port wine is made from grapes in the Duoro valley. Port wine is a fortified wine known for its higher alcohol content and sweetness. This characteristic comes from the process of, a few days after fermentation of the grapes has kicked off, stopping the fermentation by adding a special brandy to the mix. The chemical reaction of fermentation is yeast eating sugar and turning it into alcohol, so stopping the fermentation allows the natural sugars from the wine grapes to stay in the wine itself. If this process didn't occur, the wine maker would end up with a regular red wine.

The three types of port are white port, tawny port and ruby port. White and tawny port are treated the same way - just using white and red wine grapes respectively. After fermenting, the wine is transferred to oak barrels and aged for a minimum of three years, but often a lot longer. This aging process allows the wine to make contact with air, and the oxidization changes the character of the wine. Ruby ports on the other hand are reds that are aged in large vats. These vats do not allow contact with oxygen, so the rubies keep the bright fruity flavors of the wine that are oxidies out of the tawny ports. Rubies and tawnies begin as identical, and only change with the aging process.

Tawnies can age for decades, increasing in flavor complexity and price with the years. A "30 Year" Tawny is actually a blend of different tawnies with the average age being 30, and etc. Single vintage tawnies exist as well, but are less common.

Rubies come in multiple classifications - Reserve, Late Bottle Vintage and Vintage. The classification here isn't based on the age, but the quality of the grape. Rubies age in the bottle and mellow out, becoming less tanic.

Our Tastings

We did five different port-specific tastings while in Porto. I assure you though - these were spaced out over a few days.

The first place we went to was along the Rick Steves walking tour. It was raining at the time, so we stopped in and split a 10 year port tasting.

With this tasting we tried a 10 year white, a 10 year tawny and what looked like a 7 year ruby late bottle vintage (close enough). The store attendant expressed pride in that all the wines in the store were from smaller producers, and not the big names you see across the river. This was a great introduction to port, and I solidified that the tawny style is my favorite.

The next tasting we did was at Croft, one of the big names across the river. We weren't super impressed. I ordered a 20 year tawny, which I found to be less interesting than the 10 year we'd had from the smaller producer.

We next went to Ferriera, one of the big names across the river. Claire and I agree - it was definitely our favorite of the large producers. We shared a tawny port flight of a 3 year, 10 year and 20 year port, and the server spent ample time discussing the wine making process and the differences we should expect. It was fascinating (and delicious) to note the striking differences between the three tawnies, getting better as time went on.

We next went to Taylor's, the one winery where we did a full tour. This was a self guided audiotour, and was full of well put together information about the history of the region, the industy and the winery. By the end of the tour the audio guide got quite boastful about when X person in 18XX was bold and inovative and groundbreak and trailblazing, at which point Claire and I went to drink the wine that came with the tour. We were served our wine by a gentleman in an elegant suit, which matched the overall vibe of the place. We also saw a peacock on the grounds.

The last place we went was a small tasting room and wine store back across the river in Porto called Portologia. This place was without a doubt our favorite tasting spot. This time we relatively balled out, so to speak - I got a 30 year tawny, and Claire ordered a tasting flight of a 20 year white, 20 year tawny and a vintage ruby. Diana, our server, spent a while with us talking through the port wine process, and while this was our 5th tasting, we still felt like we learned a lot. Diana also told us the story of when she jokingly suggested a $1500 bottle of 100 year old tawny to a customer who'd asked "What do you recommend for my mate's birthday?" and the customer responded "Great, I'll take two."

And my 30 year port made Claire's 20 year port taste pedestrian.

Other Misc Highlights

Here are a few additional highlights from our time in Porto that didn't fit snugly in the above categegories.

We saw lots of cats

And, as Claire put it, each one of them seemed to own Porto.

We went to the "Harry Potter" book store

So as it turns out, JK Rowling lived in Porto for a time, teaching at an English private school for the wealthy families that had business in the port wine industry (a lot of the wineries are owned by Brits). During her time, she frequented a book store that was so magnificently decorated that it inspired a lot of Hogwartzian design elements. This bookstore has become such a tourist attraction that you now have to buy a five euro ticket to enter. If you choose to buy a book (it's still a book store after all), that five euro entrance fee is credited toward the price of the book.

I bought a book by Jose Saramago, Portugal's seemly one well known writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in literature.

We went to the Imperial McDonalds

Porto's Imperial Cafe closed and became the Imperial McDonalds. Watch out - it may invade Wendy's.

Our first day in Porto was super windy, and I snapped the perfect selfie from the bridge

On International Women's Day, the citizens of Porto held a March

Wrap up

We loved Porto from arrival to departure. It felt like a lively city, rather than a place simply living off of tourism. We plan on taking advantage of the TAP Portugal direct flight to Porto from Newark Airport in the years to come.

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