Monday, July 3rd - Wine Tasting

It was time to depart the Porto Torel Avantgarde and travel up the Douro Valley to our next spot, the Octant Douro. We got everything packed up and then walked down through the lobby to meet the girls for breakfast.  [This is when the concierge informed me that he saw Katie and me on TV Sunday evening. I linked to the video in the previous day's post].

We again had the lovely full breakfast and took in our magnificent view for the last time. It was a little cool that morning and we had fine, wispy clouds lightly rolling in over the river and even over the pool. It was pretty magical but something I was unable to capture in a picture.

We had an Uber scheduled to take us to our next location. It was rare for us to be in a car and as we were winding through the small streets there were places one car could barely get through. Obviously, these drivers were used to it but if I was driving it would have killed me, I was having a heart attack from the back seat!

The drive to the Octant was picturesque, winding through rural landscapes and following the river. The wispy clouds were above the river here as well, adding an ethereal touch to the scenery. Nestled in a secluded, rural area, the Octant exuded an air of elegance with its light gray and white architecture. Its pristine appearance perfectly complemented the magnificent view of the Douro River, which gracefully curved around the landscape. Arriving early, we were greeted by the front desk person who kindly offered to give us a tour of the hotel as we waited for our wine tour driver.  After that, we went to the rooftop pool area and took in the spectacular views.

Our driver arrived just before noon to take us to our wine tasting. He was incredibly friendly and engaged us in delightful conversation during the one-hour drive. The winding roads were challenging for Katie, who has always struggled with motion sickness in the backseat. Meanwhile, Nicola dozed off, leaving Christine and me to continue our enjoyable conversation with the driver. Upon our arrival, a  very friendly dog greeted us and kept us company as we waited for our host. 

Sapateiro Wine Estate was where our wine tasting was hosted by a lovely woman named Sylvie. We stayed outside in the shade of the trees while she gave a brief background about how many people in Portugal for years used the edges of their fields to grow grapes so they could make their own wine while still using the main portion of the field for growing other crops for food. This was the case for the winery. The word “sapaterio” in Portuguese means shoemaker which seems like an odd name for a winery but the person that started the winery is a shoemaker and he used the edges of his land to grow grapes and more than anything he had the grape vines as a hobby. When people were in his store they were curious to taste his wines, and asked if they could take a bottle with them. He started selling it. But he moved to a larger plot of land to have more vines on his farm. This is the estate and home where they now have the tours. After our introduction to winemaking, we went into the house and she had a table set up for us on the veranda facing the rows of growing grapes. 

The wine tasting included five wines, each had a food pairing;

• • Rose paired with steamed (small) mussels and olives with honey and bread to dip in the juices from the mussels
  • Colheita Selecionada - a white wine paired with cod fitters
  • Alvarinho & Avesso - another white wine with a combination of chicken, pork and beef sausage, but very soft. 50% bread 
  • Loureiro - (funky) Served with Portuguese, empanada
  • Red Wine Served with sautéed sardine

As you can see we had a marvelous time! At the end of the tasting, we got to see where the wine is made and of course, got to order some wine! We met the son of the shoemaker who is a partner to the woman who gave the tour. They are about 30 or 35.

The drive back to the hotel was filled with lively conversation. Katie sat in the front seat, and Nicola occupied the middle back seat, allowing them to have a clear view of the road ahead so we could avoid motion sickness. As we had indulged in a generous amount of wine during the tasting, there was no shortage of topics to discuss. It was a truly remarkable experience that left us all in high spirits.

A little more about the hotel:

• The first floor has a restaurant, a snooker table with a play area that had lots of little kids playing there (unsupervised), and the Spa.
• The second floor has a specialty restaurant where you must reserve a table for dinner. It is also where we had breakfast each day. 
• To get to our rooms on the 8th floor we had to take the elevator to the 4th floor. Then we had to proceed to take the “sideways elevator” or funicular to our 8th-floor rooms. Since this hotel is built into a side of a mountain I guess they thought having a funicular for this part of the hotel was most useful. (See photo in grid below that has a diagram of the funicular).
• Katie and Nicola's room came with a beautiful terrace with chaise lounge chairs that overlooked the Douro.
• Christine and  I had a small balcony that overlooked the Douro as well.

We got back from the winery around 5:30 pm. We decided the best thing to do was to enjoy the rooftop pool.. We got in the water and it was a lovely warm temperature. We relaxed there for a while and then went to KT & NTs terrace overlook to enjoy that view.  We had dinner at the first floor restaurant that was a pizzeria. We had a wonderful goat cheese pizza and tried a drink recommended by our driver that was White Port and Sangria. It was an interesting flavor. I think I preferred the regular white sangria. It was a lovely day and we enjoyed this lovely view just before we went to bed around 9:30 am.