I couldn’t help but laugh as we literally ran into the store two minutes before they closed. The lady told us they were closing soon, a fact we were already aware of when we realized that we only had ten minutes to get to the store that was three minutes away.
I considered trying to sort out how many bottles of wine had been consumed since my bestie and her man arrived to meet me in Lisbon, but I am uncertain I can correctly calculate that data. There were definitely only three boxes of wine consumed totalling thirteen litres, a bottle of Ginja (a sour cherry liquor they practically give away for free here). Those of you that know me, must already know we clearly made sangria. A giant salad bowl of sangria to be exact. After all we had to do something with all that wine. Really the whole idea was because one of the “famous” bottles we opened was so gross there was nothing else we could do with it.
Oh and there was that bottle of rosé port. Which we later learned they have only started recently making to try to get the “younger generation” ie. not us, into drinking port since it has fallen very much out of fashion. Not that you would know that here, there is literally port EVERYWHERE. Personally I’m not a huge fan, however, I did find a 30 year old tawny I quite liked. $$$.
We decided last second in the Pingo Doce that we needed to have bubbles for our breakfast the next morning, come the next morning there I am laughing hysterically as I realize the bubbles we have bought were red! So that accounts for our one and only bottle of red brut. As for the normal brut I think we did much better here than in France as we only had two bottles. We did go to an espumante house, and learned that Portugal in fact has an entire region of sparkling wine.
This brings us to the Douro Valley.
We me and the bestie, notorious penny pinchers now after years of travelling the world, spend an absurd amount of money to sleep in a wine barrel. It actually turned out to be literally the best money we have ever spent as the entire experience was beyond luxury. The best part was we got to try whatever we wanted from their portfolio! Landing us a fantastic bottle of rose (also the most expensive wine we bought) to have with our picnic dinner in our room. See I told you were we cheap, I mean frugal.
The little researcher that she is, the bestie found us a second great restaurant for lunch, and for the second time the octopus did not disappoint. Washed down with a glass of rosé (our most reasonable decision of the entire trip, only ordering a glass that is).
As it turns out it is actually rather difficult to rock up to a “quinta” and just do a tasting. This time of the year isn’t exactly tourist season, which you would think would make it easier, however most places didn’t do only tastings, you had to book a tour and they generally try to force port down your throat as well. We had very little interest in trying port, we were there for the wine!
The views however, did not disappoint. Literal mountains of vines, all in their fall coloured glory. Some leaves still holding on to green while others ranged from orange, to rust, to deep red. You couldn’t help but stare off into the distance and just be in this magical landscape. In the Douro they still pick grapes by hand because the hillsides are so steep they can’t use machinery. There is also still a large number of wineries stomping the grapes in these massive granite baths, for lack of a better term.
Of the unknown number of bottles we consumed there was most definitely three that we didn’t care for. Surprisingly these were not the cheapest of the wines but what seemed to be the most popular, or best value, or the most advertised. Which can only mean our palates are much different than those of the Portuguese. We did discover our new favourite grape though, Touriga Nacional.
The last bottle we had was a Pinot Noir from the Lisboa Region. It was hands down the best red we had. There was also something so nice about drinking something we are so familiar with. Especially for me, as I love my Pinots. I am keen to get my hands on some more Pinots from the region to try, however I no longer have a drinking buddy which means it is time for the climbing to resume. 
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