For the wine lover, Porto offers one of the world’s most romantic views. Standing on the quay by the broad Douro river, with the majestic iron-latticework of the late 19th-century Dom Luís I bridge on your left, a scan of Villa Nova de Gaia on the opposite bank takes in some of the biggest names in the venerable fortified wine to which the city gave its name: Calém, Sandeman, Noval, Taylor’s, Graham’s, the words formed by enormous white letters on the terracotta-tiled roofs of their ageing cellars.
When I first came to Porto around the turn of the millennium, I probably wasn’t the only tourist spending my time filling rolls of film with minor variations of this endlessly absorbing view. But, as I wandered around the maze of atmospherically dilapidated streets, it sometimes felt that way. Fast forward 25 years to this summer and I was one of what felt like thousands of people jostling to find the right angle for a selfie before settling down in one of the many new, busy waterfront bars and restaurants.
Like many other European cities, Porto has been transformed by tourism over the past couple of decades, and port has played a significant role, with the shippers converting their cellars, AKA lodges, into slick visitor centres, luxury hotels (the Yeatman, owned by the Fladgate Partnership, the owners of Taylor’s) or boutique hostels (the Sandeman House), and, in 2020, opening (Fladgate again) a vast wine-themed museum and hospitality complex, World of Wine.
The focus on wine tourism, which has also begun to flow 60 miles upstream to the spectacular terraced vineyards of the Douro valley where the grapes are grown and wines are made, is just part of the port trade’s plan for surviving a precipitous drop in demand for its fortified wines (30% since 2000). Other strategies include persuading remaining customers to buy higher-priced ports that offer a better return for producers, and an accelerating switch to making unfortified, lower-alcohol Douro table wines.
None of this is straightforward. The steep rise in visitors to Porto and the Douro has led to concerns that, like Barcelona , they will end up with unaffordable housing and stressed public services. And thanks largely to antiquated regulations which dictate the price and quantity of grapes made into port each year, but leave table wine grapes (which now account for almost half of all wine made in the valley) to be sold on the open market, many of the network of small, often subsistence farmers that give the Douro’s geography and wines its character are struggling to make a living. Some vineyards are being abandoned, while the local youth head to the city to look for work, often in the tourist trade.
Curiously, in what can feel like a time of crisis, the quality of the wines in the Douro, both fortified and unfortified, has never been better. And it’s there, in what are some of the best-value fine wines in the world, that hope for the future of this most romantic of wine regions is most in evidence.
Six great wines from the Douro
Planalto Douro Branco
Douro, Portugal 2023 (from £7.95, thewinesociety.com; majestic.co.uk; nywines.co.uk)
The Douro Valley is overwhelmingly red-grape focused, but its whites, both fortified ports and engagingly aromatic, juicily tropical dry whites, such as this blend of local grapes from higher altitude vines, can be superb.
EH Booth Douro Tinto
Douro, Portugal 2020 (£11.50, Booths)
Made for Booths by Quinta de la Rosa, this is a lovely expression of Douro red grapes in light wine mode: robust and ripe with brambly fruit and smooth tannins. It’s a great value winter warmer alternative to malbec.
Morrisons The Best 10 Year Old Aged Tawny Port
Douro, Portugal NV (£15, Morrisons)
Port comes in various styles but essentially two families: the darkly fruited vintage (and vintage-style wines designed to age in bottle) and tawny ports, sold after years maturing in oak. With its sweetly nutty style, this is a great introduction to the latter.
Taylor’s Late Bottled Vintage Port
Douro, Portugal 2018 (from £17.95, masterofmalt.com; Waitrose; Sainsbury’s)
The fabulously consistent Taylor’s produces superbly long-lived vintage ports and complex tawnies, but this bestselling old favourite, so compellingly intense, and purring with luxurious black fruit, is the best place to start any exploration of their range.
Niepoort Vertente
Douro, Portugal 2020 (from £25, caviste.co.uk; tanners-wines.co.uk; hedonism.co.uk)
From a longstanding port-producing family of Dutch origins, Dirk Niepoort has been a hugely influential force in the rise of Douro table wine, with this gorgeously fresh, fluent, perfectly ripe expression typical of his house red style.
Kopke Colheita Tawny Port
Douro, Portugal 2005 (£35.99, Waitrose)
While most of the best aged tawnies are blends of various casks with an average age from 10 to 50 years, some, known as colheita, are wood-aged ports from a single vintage. This is a flat-out gorgeous, lusciously toffee-ed, sweetly spiced example.