port. in porto.

you don't go to porto without drinking some port.

it is, after all, named after this second largest city in portugal.

port is a fortified wine that is made from grapes grown in the nearby douro valley. 

so, as any good tourist in porto, we made sure to sample some of the city's finest.

we did not book anything in advance, rather relied upon some odd blog recommendations of port lodges that would not be full of every single tourist in porto. 

for what it's worth, the two visits we had were enough for me. 

i enjoyed port, but it's quite strong, and it's not really meant to be imbibed in large quantities, so i'd recommend spacing out your visits. 

our first stop was at croft.

at croft you can have a tour of their cellar and three different samples from their selection for 10 euro. they have a large space indoors for enjoying your port, but on sunny days i'd recommend a spot at one of the tables they have out on a small patio.

this is the croft pink, the first rose port wine in the world.

the tour was a little long-winded for our tastes.

thankfully it ended with the 10 year old tawny port

and a sample of the ruby reserve.

on a different day, we headed to churchill's.

churchill's has a tasting room with views down to the douro river. 

we were offered a tour here, but politely declined.

we just wanted to drink the port.

the learning was less important!

churchill's has a menu that gives visitors choices in terms of what samples are available. we went with whatever the basic option was that, like croft, had three samples for a small fee.

vivino praised me for all my port tastings!

vivino is an app where you can track the wine you drink
 and record your thoughts about it.

in terms of atmosphere, i preferred croft over churchill's. neither place was directly on the river, so a visit to either one requires following locally placed signs or navigating via your phone to find their location.

this blogger has written about a few of her port wine stops if you are looking for a few other options. and on this blog, more info about port and it's varieties is available, along with some thoughts on a few different port houses. 

travel tip: be sure to check the hours for the port houses and for the times of tours. at croft, we lucked out that the english tour was about 20 minutes away when we arrived. english tours are limited, so if that's important to you, make your plans a few days in advance.