Frommer's Portugal 18th Edition - Asociación de Amigos de Portugal ...

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CHAPTER 1 . THE BEST OF PORTUGAL
a meal with cheese, fruit, or nuts.
You can visit a port-wine lodge to
learn more about port—and, more
important, to taste it. The best
lodges to visit are concentrated in
Vila Nova de Gaia, a suburb of
Porto across the Douro from Porto’s
commercial center.
• Vinhos Verdes (pronounced
“veen-yosh vair-desh”): These
“green wines” are more lemony in
color. Many come from the Minho
district in northwest Portugal,
which, like Galicia in the north of
Spain, gets an abundance of rain.
Cultivated in a humid atmosphere,
the grapes are picked while young.
Some wine aficionados don’t consider
this wine serious, finding it
too light. With its fruity flavor, it’s
said to suggest the cool breezes of
summer. It’s often served with fish,
and many Portuguese use it as a
thirst quencher in the way an
American might consume a soft
drink. The finest vinhos verdes are
from Monção, just south of the
river Minho. Those from Amarante
are also praised.
• Dão: Dão is produced from
grapes grown just south of the
Douro in the north’s mountainous
heartland. “Our vines have tender
grapes” goes the saying throughout
the valleys of Mondego and
Dão, each split by a river. Summers
are fiery hot and winters wet,
cold, and often bitter. A lot of
Dão wine is red, notably the vinhos
maduros, matured in oak
casks for nearly 2 years before
12 The Best Offbeat Trips
• Horseback Riding Along the
Coast: The Atlantic Ocean is the
livelihood of many Portuguese and
the inspiration for a number of
rides along its beaches. An American
company, Equitour, offers
being bottled. The wine is velvety
in texture and often accompanies
roasts. At almost every restaurant
in Portugal, you’ll encounter
either branco (white) or Dão tinto
(red). The best bottles of red Dão
wine are the reserve (“reserva” is
printed on the label). Other
names to look for include Porta
dos Cavaleiros and Terras Altas.
(No one seems to agree on how to
pronounce the name—daw-ng,
da-ow, or, least flattering, dung.)
• Madeira: Grown from grapes
rooted in the island’s volcanic soil,
this wine traces its origins to 1419.
Its history is similar to that of port,
in that it was highly prized by aristocratic
British families. George
Washington was among the wine’s
early admirers, although the
Madeira he consumed little resembled
the product bottled today.
Modern Madeira wines are lighter
and drier than the thick, sweet
kinds favored by generations past.
The wine, which is fortified and
blended, includes such varieties as
Malmsey, Malvasia, and Boal—
sweet, heavy wines usually served
with dessert or at the end of a meal.
The less sweet Verdelho is often
consumed as a light drink between
meals, in much the same way that
a Spaniard downs a glass of sherry.
Dry and light, Sercial is best as an
aperitif and is often served in Portugal
with toasted and salted
almonds. None of these wines is
likely to be consumed with the
main dish at dinner.
these treks. (For more details, refer
to section 14 in chapter 2). In addition
to beach riding, there is
trekking through olive groves, vineyards,
pine forests, and lagoons.
Seeing this beautiful country from