Portuguese Classics

Spend a sublime evening tasting Porto’s wine, cuisine and culture.

- Barbara Radcliffe Rogers

PORTO IS ALL ABOUT WINE. Wine literally flows from the steep vineyard-clad hillsides into the Douro River and on to Porto, where it ages in casks and is shipped throughout the world. Port wine takes its name from the city and shaped Porto’s social, cultural and economic history.

Visiting the great wine houses is the thing to do here, and with planning you can fit a tour and tasting into an after-5 schedule. Wine houses, easy to find, line the riverbank and ascend the steep hillside of Vila Nova de Gaia, across the Douro River from the even-steeper streets of Ribeira, the old town. The dramatic Ponte Luis I Bridge connects the two.