A personal selection of photographs with their stories.
009: Port wine houses
When you visit Porto, you should cross the Ponte Luis I, the wrought iron bridge – designed by Gustave Eiffel – that spans the Douro River, to Vila Nova de Gaia. This district is famous for its caves, the port wine houses. The giant billboards allow you to read world famous names of delicious port wines: Sandeman, Graham’s, Ferreira, Cálem, Ramos Pinto, Offley, Croft, Churchill’s, and many more. When I was in Porto for the first time, I was invited by my friend to visit one of these caves, and we chose Offley. We were impressed by the enormous cellars where stood a large number of big oaken barrels full of wines that were selected to ripen and become Tawny, Ruby or Vintage port wines. We tasted some of those sweet, warm port wines, and I bought a Colheita of white port wine, which I liked very much.
© Adriano Antoine Robbesom 1999, 2001, 2003, 2017