I love Portugal. It is beautiful, friendly and cheap. We visited Porto after Champagne, taking a late night Ryan Air flight with a band of gypsies. We arrived at our apartment around 12:30am and were very fortunately and kindly met by the property manager. The apartment was small but clean and nice. The bed might be the worst I've ever "slept" on. I'm not sure I would have slept had walking through the steep hills of the city not completely exhausted me.
The city is beautiful. Typical Portuguese tile and architecture fill the streets with photo opportunities. I probably had my poorest navigational outing unfortunately. None of the streets are straight and they tend to change names at every bend. Couple that with the hills and tall buildings that obstruct the view of landmarks and a poor map and you have a recipe for getting lost. Fortunately we never got too lost and once we got in sight of the Douro River we were grand.
We toured 3 port houses. Taylor Fladgate and Grahams were done without reservations and therefore without the Total Wine treatment or discount. The tours and tastings were still enjoyable (despite having to put up with other people!). The Fladgate property was the most beautiful. It had a large entry patio covered with grapevines and a restaurant with a patio overlooking the Douro. Grahams had the nicest barrel and tasting room. Grahams is still connected to the English royal family and makes Colheita port (single vintage tawny) coinciding with British monarchical events and then sends some to the family for anniversaries of those events. Offley was the best tour because Dana had scheduled a tour and it was private with the wine educator for the company that owns the port house (and many other houses) who also used to be a master blender for Cockburn's. He was fascinating and made the process of port making and the varying influences (including the American wine critics) on the current styles relevant and interesting. The tasting had 7 ports, 2 of which might be the best wines I've ever tasted. The 30yr tawny (which we can't find for sale in the U.S.) and the 2011 Vintage Port. Completely different, totally amazing. We were told that 2011 in Port might be the best vintage of the last century (1963 being the only rival), so if you're into Vintage port stock up!
We also did a little cruse up the Douro seeing the multiple bridges connecting Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia and steep banks on both sides of the river. It was interesting how many of the properties along the river were in disrepair. The view is so beautiful it seems like prime territory for an investor. We enjoyed everything (except the hills on foot). The food and people, the wine of course. Next time we're going to go up the Douro to see where the vineyards are planted and the wine made. Exciting times!
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Leg 1...Champagne
We have just returned from our 2 week tour of Europe. We visited Ireland, France, Portugal, Italy and Northern Ireland. Fewer stops would have probably made the trip more manageable but all together we had an amazing time. I'll be posting each location seperately with the exception of Ireland and Norther Ireland as we didn't take a whole lot of pictures there.
This first post is the Champagne region of France. We visited 2 cities and a number of little villages. We stayed in the larger city Reims and spent an afternoon in Epernay. If (more likely when) we return I think we would opt for staying near Epernay as it is more charming, smaller and picturesc with the Avenue de Champagne, a street lined with Champagne houses.
This trip was all about the wine. We had 3 scheduled visits to Champagne houses and in retrospect we wish we had done more. We visited Mailly Gran Cru, Nicolas Feuillatte, and Pertios-Moriset. It was quite a range of production with Feuillatte the largest producing 100million bottles/year (that's not a typo), Mailly ~500,000 and Pertios producing 80,000. We didn't know what to expect booking tours with "Total Wine" attached to it and let me say that we were not disappointed.
Our first stop was Mailly which is now and has always been owned by 25 families. They hand dug cellars out of the chalk soil back in the 20's and are only house that only produces Gran Cru Champagne. Xavier was our host and was amazing. We saw the entire facility (6 floors covering about 25 meters deep). We had a tasting of 8 Champagnes and were given a gift of one of their finest (and my favorites) when we left.
Next we went to Nicolas Feuillatte. Because they are not a "winery partner" with TW we had a lower expectation for this visit, however again we had a comprehensive private tour followed by a 6 wine tasting and a gift. The most impressive fact is the high quality of wine produced in this facility with such massive output. All the wines were delicious.
Finally we visited Pertios-Moriset. Our host, Vincent, is the co-owner (with his wife), winemaker and owns some of the vineyards. His winery is literally in a neighborhood where he makes his wine in an oversized 2 floor garage. He is very enthusiastic and thoughtful character sharing some of his ideas for marketing his product. We had a very nice tasting after the tour and again a wonderful gift, a 2008 Blanc de blanc.
We spent some time in Reims. They have a very ornate cathedral, some restaurant and shopping areas. In Epernay we ogled at the Champagne houses and found a post office to mail 2 of our wines back home. Apparently you can't ship alcohol to the U.S. (legally) but our French post man was very helpful and eventually we got it sent off (it even arrived!!). This first leg of the trip was awesome and energized us for the Ryan Air flight to Portugal...which we would need.
This first post is the Champagne region of France. We visited 2 cities and a number of little villages. We stayed in the larger city Reims and spent an afternoon in Epernay. If (more likely when) we return I think we would opt for staying near Epernay as it is more charming, smaller and picturesc with the Avenue de Champagne, a street lined with Champagne houses.
This trip was all about the wine. We had 3 scheduled visits to Champagne houses and in retrospect we wish we had done more. We visited Mailly Gran Cru, Nicolas Feuillatte, and Pertios-Moriset. It was quite a range of production with Feuillatte the largest producing 100million bottles/year (that's not a typo), Mailly ~500,000 and Pertios producing 80,000. We didn't know what to expect booking tours with "Total Wine" attached to it and let me say that we were not disappointed.
Our first stop was Mailly which is now and has always been owned by 25 families. They hand dug cellars out of the chalk soil back in the 20's and are only house that only produces Gran Cru Champagne. Xavier was our host and was amazing. We saw the entire facility (6 floors covering about 25 meters deep). We had a tasting of 8 Champagnes and were given a gift of one of their finest (and my favorites) when we left.
Next we went to Nicolas Feuillatte. Because they are not a "winery partner" with TW we had a lower expectation for this visit, however again we had a comprehensive private tour followed by a 6 wine tasting and a gift. The most impressive fact is the high quality of wine produced in this facility with such massive output. All the wines were delicious.
Finally we visited Pertios-Moriset. Our host, Vincent, is the co-owner (with his wife), winemaker and owns some of the vineyards. His winery is literally in a neighborhood where he makes his wine in an oversized 2 floor garage. He is very enthusiastic and thoughtful character sharing some of his ideas for marketing his product. We had a very nice tasting after the tour and again a wonderful gift, a 2008 Blanc de blanc.
We spent some time in Reims. They have a very ornate cathedral, some restaurant and shopping areas. In Epernay we ogled at the Champagne houses and found a post office to mail 2 of our wines back home. Apparently you can't ship alcohol to the U.S. (legally) but our French post man was very helpful and eventually we got it sent off (it even arrived!!). This first leg of the trip was awesome and energized us for the Ryan Air flight to Portugal...which we would need.
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