Peso da Régua, Portugal – April 21

We had a very short sail from where we docked overnight in Lamego to Peso da Régua. There was a small village here but we were on our way to a winery, Quinta da Pacheca, and a port cocktail making class.

The winery was established in 1738 with a small acreage. Now it covers 170 acres. Of their production 30% is port wine and the remainder red and white wines. We learned that the quality of the wine is dependent on the altitude, soil and direction of the land. There are 115 different types of grapes grown in the Douro Valley. It is called “the region of the blends” because almost none of the wines produced here come from only 1 grape. The port wine is made up of 4 to 12 grapes using the best from the harvest.

The grapes are harvested by hand in August to September. In the entire area there are 100,000 acres of grapes. Even the large companies harvest by hand. Once harvested the grapes are put into a lagar, which is a large square concrete structure. Then 10 people get inside and stomp the grapes with their feet. There is a certain pattern they follow and each group does this for 3 hours.

The fermentation for port is only 3 days. Then aguardente (firewater) which is 77% alcohol is added to the wine to stop the fermentation and made the final product about 20% alcohol. There are actually 4 kinds of port wine, white, pink, tawny and ruby. By law the winery must keep a third of its production in reserve. This is in case there is a bad year, they will still be able to produce the wines. Here is a link to their website with photos and information about their history.

https://quintadapacheca.com/pages/our-history

We then went into the storage area and on to a room to make our cocktails.

We then sailed on. The countryside was beautiful, hilly with terraced vineyards. We had a cooking demonstration of a famous Portuguese sandwich, francesinha, a heart attack on a plate – 2 slices of bread, bacon, ham, steak, sausage, several layers of cheese, a sunny side up egg and a spicy sauce. It is surrounded by a huge amount of fries.

The chef gave a galley tour. We could go into the galley because our dinner that evening was off the ship in a Michelin starred restaurant, DOC.

Finally had blue skies in the afternoon and a promise of nice weather, although some questions about being able to move further along the river due to high waters from all the rain.