If a Taste Porto cancellation does not magically materialize, does anyone have recommendations for a wine tasting in Porto where they offer a "flight" of wines for people unfamiliar with Portuguese wines?
And I see something called "dry wines" mentioned in various websites. Is this what would generally referred to as simply "wines" i.e. non fortified? :-)
"Dry" wines are simply not sweet.
I can't help you with the rest of your query, but I am following, since we're going to be in Porto later this year.
We live in wine country in California and dry does mean at the other end of the specturm from sweet wines here too.
I was just struck by the fact that the Portugal tourist literature refers only to port wines and dry wines and thought the words might have different implications.
I’ve not seen the ‘dry wine’ references but since Port is very sweet (to me), it might be to differentiate between table wine and port.
In Gaia, across the river in Porto, are many Port lodges. A number of them also have regular wine for tasting. Try looking at the websites of the larger ones. I did a flight of tasting a number of years ago but can’t remember the name of the lodge.
There is likely to be wine restaurants in Porto (we have one in Cascais), that will do tastings and a bit of education on Portuguese wines.
You are wise to want to do tastings as the Portuguese wines aren’t labeled with the type of grapes and it takes a bit of time to learn their labeling. You might also download the Vivino app. You can take a picture of a bottle and get descriptions of the taste, reviews, etc.
Just saw an article on a new (to me) attraction in Porto related to all things wine. It’s World of Wine. They have classes on Portuguese wines, museums, restaurants, etc. You might want to check out the website. It will be on my list for the next trip to Porto!
kathrynj, Thank you! We're spending a few days in Porto after our RS tour, so this looks like something to check out.
We just returned from Portugal and our favourite wine tasting was at Kopke, in Porto Gaia, just across the pedestrian bridge. There was no language issue and despite looking rather "fancy" we found the staff to be extremely friendly. We didn't pre-book but arrived shortly after they opened on a Sunday morning and the small tasting room was pretty full by the time we left. The basic 25 Euro flight had two wines and three ports plus nibbles. They also had wine only flights plus fancier port flights paired with lovely looking chocolates. I'd highly recommend the experience.
I will add it to my notes, deannelamb, though we did snag a booking with Rafael DeLima
