Has anyone done the food and wine tour mentioned in Rick's book with Andre....www.tasteporto.com and have any feedback?
Also it appears that Vila Nova de Gaia is where much of the world's port wine comes from and where the wine lodges are.
Any recommendations on visiting a Port Wine Lodge and which one ? Three mentioned in Rick's book are Sandeman, Calem and Taylor.
Feedback?
I’ve done the food tour with Taste Oporto and really enjoyed it. Bear in mind it’s unlikely that Andre will be your guide. RS and Anthony Bourdain really gave a boost to his company and he has other guides to do the tours most of the time.
And, yes, Gaia is where the port lodges are located. It’s fun to just wander around in the area and go in the lodges that strike your fancy. Don’t just stay on the road facing the river. There is a street parallel and behind it that has smaller lodges. There are a few that also do wine tastings along with the port. We liked Kopke, as they had regular wine for tasting.
We just booked the craft beer tour for the end of October! Great reviews on TripAdvisor as well. I'll report back with our experience!
We have done the Taste of Porto and the Culinary Backstreets Beyond the Barrel tours. We enjoyed the Taste of Porto tour because of the quality of the food experience. But if you can only do 1, I recommend the Culinary Backstreets Beyond the Barrel tour because it includes some great food and an opportunity to see non-touristy areas of Porto and hear about their unique history and social issues. Plus we had a great diverse mix of people from 3 different continents.
I did the tour and tasting at Calem because I was running short on time my last day in Porto and it is the closest one to get to if you walk across the bridge from Porto over to Gaia. They have tours in English about every 80 minutes. It was easy to just walk in and sign up for the next one. It was less detailed and less personal than the smaller family run quintas I visited in the Duoro valley but it was also interesting to see how the really big producers do things. At Calem you get a choice of the regular (2 ports) or premium (3 ports) ticket. If you are with other people, I recommend at least one of you get the 3 port ticket so you can all at least taste the 3rd one which is the most expensive of the 3. I only went to one port lodge, so I can't compare. I'd say Calem was definitely fine and fun but nothing amazing.
