The Reason People Visit Porto: A Visit to a Port Wine Cave

Deep in the Burmester Cave

The reason most tourists visit Porto -- and I think this is universally true among the Brits -- is for the port wine.  And no visit to Porto would be complete without a visit to a port wine "cave."

And visiting the port wine caves involves crossing the Douro River on the not-Eiffel bridge:

The caves -- which is not the American word "cave" but the Portuguese word for "cellar" -- are located across the water in the town of Villa Nova de Gaia, which you can call just "Gaia."  It's much nicer than being Oakland to Porto's San Francisco.  Or Newark to Porto's New York.  How about an Arlington to Porto's D.C.?  Or maybe a  Laughlin to Porto's Bullhead City?

Moving on, as I've taken that as far as it will go.  The cave I selected?

Burmester.  The guide from the organized walking tour had it among her recommends.  And it was the first one you come to when you cross the not-Eiffel bridge.  Good enough for me!

This is the waiting area for the English-language tour.  It was only a half-hour wait, which is not bad considering that you have to make reservations for many of the other caves well in advance.  The Brits, being massive port drinkers, have favorites and make their reservations before getting on the aeroplane.

That picture makes me look like I'm in port heaven.  To the light!

From the cave, I had an excellent view of the Ponte Luis I and the Douro River.  There were three kids standing on the rails of the bridge, ready to jump in the water.  Which they do.  For tip money.  In the above photo, if you look closely, about one-fifth of the way across the bridge from the left, you can see a pair of legs.  One of the kids had jumped and I caught him in mid-descent.

This is our tour, with Vincent (on the right) our tour guide:

The tour basically consisted of looking at oak barrels.  For tawny port, the wine is eventually moved from the massive barrels on the right to the smaller barrels on the left.  Ruby port, as well as white port, stays in the massive barrels.

Then, after learning about how port is made, it's time for some port tasting.

The raison d'etre for touring a port cave!  I opted for the 15 euro tour, which got me four glasses of port and two pieces of chocolate:

From front to back:  white port, vintage ruby port, regular ruby port, and a 10 year old tawny port.  The 10 year old tawny tasted like caramel.  I like caramel.

Tomorrow, I jet off to the Island of Madeira for the last two days of this vacation.