Wine: Delicious wines by a highly respected winery owned by the same family since the 1700s. Put on the map and fostered by Doña Antonia Adelaide Ferreira, a woman, running a winery in the 1800s. An entrepreneur, an advocate for keeping vineyards under local ownership and an early adopter of technology to protect against phylloxera, she helped establish Port and the Douro as the superior, renowned region it is today. Ferreirinha was a total badass.
The basic wine tasting includes 5 wines: 1. Vallado White (rabigato, códega, viosinho, gouveio & arinto), 2. Vallado Red (touriga franca (25%), touriga nacional (25%), tinta roriz (25%), sousão (5%) and mixed old vines (field blend! 20%), 3. Touriga Nacional 100%, 4. Reserva Field Blend (vines more than 100 years old, 45 grape varieties--how cool is that--predominately tinta roriz, tinta amarela, touriga franca & tinta barroca), 5. 10 Year Tawny Port (Mix of old vines).
Food: There is a restaurant on the Quinta Do Vallado property in the boutique hotel. It's a fixed price menu and includes 4 scrumptious courses plus wine and port. Hell of a value especially for the quality! (This sums up eating and drinking in Portugal in general!)
My take: This is a top-notch experience. The hotel is wonderful. The restaurant great. And the winery tour was fabulous; it's one of the best I've ever had. It took more than 2 hours including the tasting. I am fascinated by their embrace of modern techniques while also maintaining traditional ones and running these processes side-by-side. More on Quinta do Vallado
