I'm finally slowly trying to catch up on all the cool places I went when I was in Portugal in late January of this year, including, obviously as many port tasting rooms as I could make it to while I was staying nearby. (I intentionally stayed on the Vila Nova de Gaia so I could walk to all the tasting rooms!)
Though this is right off the main strip where all the tasting rooms are, there's absolutely *zero* flash here - just a small room in front where you can pick from a menu which ports you want to try, and a small room in the back with a couple tables and chairs, that feels more like the waiting room for a dental office, than most of the flashier tasting rooms around the corner. I actually rather liked that - you could tell they focused entirely on the quality of the port itself. It was also one of the most expensive tasting lists (and commensurately expensive list of bottles), but there's a reason for that, quality-wise. Thankfully, after trying quite a number of ports by the time I made it here, I'd also determined fairly conclusively that I tended to like the mid-range stuff more than the longer-aged, fancier stuff anyway, so I was here specifically to try their LBV and the reserve Tawny, at 8 euro each for a pour. Even nicer: they made me take a third tasting to round it out, the 10-year white, which I did not have to pay for - I can confirm, all three were excellent. Then, being the only customer in the tasting room at the time the whole time I was there, I ended up chatting with the very knowledgeable server while I sat back and tasted them, not just about port, but about wine in general, both Portuguese and American. Great, chill spot.
(Then I ended up also buying a bottle of the Tawny reserve for 35 euros, by far the most expensive port I brought back, but entirely worth it.) read more