Savoring the wine country of Portugal’s Douro River Valley

We’ve traveled through various wine regions before, but never have we been so impressed as during our cruise along Portugal’s Douro River in the heart of port wine country. It was late summer 2004, just before the harvest, and the hills ascending from the river were covered with vines in martial array as if they had been laid out by master surveyors.

These views, along with shore excursions to wineries, side trips into towns and villages and a day-long visit to fascinating Salamanca, Spain, combined to make our 6-day cruise truly memorable.

Oporto

We joined the Douro Princess in Oporto. Our cabin was typical of most on riverboats, small but well appointed and comfortable. The lounge, where we would spend many happy hours, was even more comfortable with its easy chairs, couches and well-stocked bar.

We toured Oporto, strolling along winding streets and admiring the tiles gracing the houses and shops of this ancient but well-preserved city.

The Palácio da Bolsa, an impressive building, faces a square honoring Prince Henry the Navigator. Of 19th-century magnificence, it was commissioned by Portuguese traders as a meeting place and stock exchange, serving as such from 1842 to 1910. Its pillared portico leads into a 3-story atrium topped by a glass dome. Ironwork balconies circle the room, the floor of which is mosaic tiled. Coats of arms representing trading nations adorn the walls.

The Palácio da Bolsa contains various meeting rooms, but most impressive is the famed Arabian Room — 18 years in the building — its windows of stained glass and its carved walls painted in blue, red, gold and pearl gray transporting visitors to the Middle East at its most opulent.

The cathedral crowns the highest hill in the city, is second only to Lisbon’s in age and has stood in Oporto since the 12th century as a stopping place for pilgrims traveling to Santiago de Compostelo. Like many other cathedrals of that time, it doubled as a fortress and represents both Romanesque and Gothic architecture in its granite shell and 13th-century rose window.

Within are Baroque glories, including a 17th-century side altar, its chiseled wood covered by 250 kilograms of silver. Gold leaf from Brazil adorns the main altar and the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament.

Wine country

Home to port wines, the Douro River Valley is blessed with ideal weather for viniculture: hot summers and mild winters.

Our first wine tasting was at the port wine warehouse of Real Companhia Velha. A pleasantly musty, vinous odor greeted us as we entered the building, which has stood since the company was established in 1756. An enthusiastic young woman led us through the production process of port wine as we walked along aisles formed by what seemed like thousands of wine barrels.

In the early stages of fermentation, alcohol is added to stop the conversion of all of the sugar to alcohol. This results in a wine with a high concentration of sugar and a sweeter taste than typical table wines.

Aging in oak barrels, the wine oxidizes as it “breathes” through the pores in the wood. The older port is better, but it does not age in the bottle. We were advised to compare the bottling year with the vintage year when buying.

The best of all is ruby port. We tasted an extra-dry white of recent vintage (an appropriate aperitif) and a tawny, recommended to be served with cheese.

A unique night out

We began the cruise on the Douro Princess after lunch and spent a relaxing afternoon heading up the river, viewing the first of what would be many vineyards and several well-populated beaches.

The Douro rises in Spain and flows across the entire north of Portugal to empty into the Atlantic at Oporto. We traversed the first of the five locks we would encounter on the Douro and docked at Bitetos.

That evening we followed a snaking road with sheer drops on each side on our way to Hotel Convento de Alpendurada (Lugar do Mosteiro; phone +351 255 611 371) for dinner. Established in the 11th century as a Dominican monastery, the ruins have been restored using some of the original stone and now serve as an elegant hotel. The property overlooks the Douro and is surrounded by old-growth trees. It is furnished with antiques and artifacts collected from all over the world.

Dinner — excellent fresh ham and delicious potatoes roasted in a traditional brick oven — was preceded by cabbage soup (a Portuguese specialty which showed up often during our meals) and followed by flan. The dinner introduced us to the curious Portuguese habit of serving rice as well as potatoes.

Port production

The landscape along the banks changed radically as the Douro Princess cruised upriver. Granite cliffs with their crowns of pines, reminiscent of those along Oregon’s Columbia River, gave way to rolling hills covered with vineyards and olive trees.

The Douro Princess’ next stop was Peso da Régua, a good-sized town with beautiful tiles illustrating the production of port adorning its post office. At the Museo do Douro we learned the history of port and the intricacies of the wine-making process, from the growing of the grapes to the bottling of the product. On display were examples of the traditional broad-brimmed hat and long cape worn by members of the Brotherhood of Tasters, a 300-year-old guild.

At our second wine tasting, at Solar da Rede in Mesão Frio, we sampled a white port (not bad) and a red table wine (not good) while nibbling on raisins (unpitted!), walnuts, almonds and some tasty bread stuffed with ham and bacon.

We continued on to a local manor house, now a pousada, for dinner. It was in a lovely setting, high on one of those ubiquitous hills and surrounded by vineyards. Our return to the ship, down narrow roads on precipitous hills, offered a lovely view of the Douro shimmering in the moonlight.

Vila Real

The following morning we drove along a tributary of the Douro, the Corgo, to Vila Real. This area is divided into two regions. The Lower Corgo has three times more rainfall, resulting in grapes that produce tawny and ruby port, not to mention many olive trees. The land of the Upper Corgo is noted not only for its grapes but for its almond trees.

Vila Real has a population of 25,000 and is the economic and industrial center of the Douro Valley. It dates back to the Middle Ages when it was indeed a “royal village,” serving as a vacation spot for the ruling classes.

The area is noted for its black pottery, which is becoming rare as the artisans who make it retire with few successors.

We visited Casa de Mateus, an 18th-century Baroque manor house built by an Italian architect for a count of Vila Real. The property still belongs to the original family. (Mateus Rosé wine, produced about 80 miles south of here, depicts the house on its label.) The gardens were spectacular, including orchards, a lovely knot garden and, most amazing of all, a hundred-foot cedar tunnel which led from the formal gardens to the vineyards beyond.

Salamanca, Spain

The next day, after setting off in the coach from the quay at Barca d’Alva, we crossed the Douro, the natural boundary here between Spain and Portugal, to visit Salamanca. The only indication that we had crossed the border was a large signboard welcoming us to the royal province of Castilla y León.

The 2½-hour drive up and around hills passed many groves of almond and olive trees but few vineyards.

Celtic tribes, who were subsequently driven out by the Romans, first settled Salamanca. An ancient bridge, dating from A.D. 300 and restored in the 17th century, is still used by pedestrians.

Salamanca is home to Europe’s fourth-oldest university, the famed Universidad de Salamanca, dating from the 13th century and ceding precedence only to those of Bologna, Paris and Oxford. The school’s first classes were held in the cloisters adjoining La Catedral Vieja (The Old Cathedral). A more recent classroom (15th century) has a coffered Moorish ceiling and was in use until 1965.

Dominican friars were the original instructors. One such 16th-century teacher, Fray Luis de León, had the temerity to translate the Bible into the vernacular — annoying the Spanish Inquisition. He was imprisoned for five years, and on his return to the classroom his first words were, “As I was saying yesterday. . . .”

The gorgeous Gothic university buildings surround a plaza with a view of the equally beautiful Gothic spires of the city.

Salamanca certainly deserves its soubriquet of The Golden City. Buildings constructed of local sandstone seem to glisten in the sunlight.

La Catedral Nueva (The New Cathedral), begun in the 16th century and completed about 200 years later, reflects Salamanca’s golden age when it was among the most important cities in Europe. It is recognized as “the last breath of Gothic style,” as that architectural style was about to give way to Baroque.

Paintings and sculptures cover the walls. Among the most interesting, for me, was “El Cristo de las Batallas” (Christ of the Battles), which was carried by El Cid when he drove the Moors from Spain. A shrine to St. Expedite is particularly revered by students, who throw coins at his feet: he is, reputedly, the patron saint of procrastinators.

La Catedral Vieja dates from the 12th century and is done in the Romanesque style, which morphed into Gothic during the 200 years that it was being completed. The high altar is recognized by art historians as one of the finest outside of Italy, featuring art of the 15th-century Florentine School.

Castelo Rodrigo

Back in Portugal, we traveled to the castle fortress of Castelo Rodrigo, settled atop a hill in the 11th century. The eponymous Rodrigo, a Spanish feudal chief, brought immigrants from Spain to populate this combination fortress/palace. Once Portugal became independent of Spain, the palace was destroyed and only the walls of the fortress remained. However, in the 16th and 17th centuries several families took up residence, particularly Sephardic Jews who had been expelled from Spain.

Today 60 residents live on site, and they are required to maintain their homes in keeping with the architectural styles of the 12th through 16th centuries.

The focal point of the village is its 12th-century church, another stopping place for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostelo.

We continued on to the town of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo below. The local town hall has beautiful examples of Portuguese tiles illustrating the agricultural nature of the region.

After returning to the ship at Pinhão, we decided this would be a good evening to dine ashore — at the Vintage House Hotel (Lugar da Ponte; phone +351 254 730 230). The dinner, venison for one of us and duck for the other, was delicious, preceded by excellent bread (delivered in a bag) and a complimentary glass of port wine. The cost for two was about $75-$100.

Back on the ship, we found ourselves in the middle of the evening’s entertainment: a group of Portuguese musicians who ended their performance by inviting guests to join them in dance.

Annual procession

On our last day we visited Lamego, noted for its shrine of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios (Our Lady of the Remedies). Nearly 700 steps lead up to the shrine, steps that many pilgrims ascend on their knees.

Devotion to the Virgin started in the 15th century. The shrine, however, dates from 1761 and its Baroque façade reflects that period. The shrine contains two unique statues: one of the Virgin breast-feeding and the other of Jesus as an 8-year-old.

A more conventional statue of the Virgin is drawn by oxen through the town in an annual procession on her feast day, September 8th. This procession, which starts at the cathedral and ends at the shrine, is the only one of its kind in Portugal. Our guide proudly informed us, “Not even Fátima has such an event.”

The details

Our trip was arranged through INTRAV (St. Louis, MO; phone 800/456-8100 or visit www.intrav.com). Costs ranged from $3,095 to $3,695 per person, double, including airfare from New York. Shore excursions and transfers were included in the cost.