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| Quinta de Seixov |
Today we’re visiting the Quinta de Seixov winery, part of the Sandeman brands. The symbol of the Sandeman brand is “The Don” dressed in a Spanish hat and a cape. Their most famous wine is the Mateus Rosé of which they sell 25,000,000 bottles a year to 125 countries; it’s called the Coca-Cola of wine. From the winery, we can see the old terraces where everything is done by hand as well as newer dirt terraces where machinery can be used. The new terraces have irrigation lines, used for the first time last year as the climate becomes drier. Besides grapes the winery has numerous fruit trees especially orange and lemon to flavor the Port wine. The stamping of the grapes is for the finer wines is done by foot for five hours. But a machine stomper is used for most wines in a large stone vat. The wine is placed in various sizes of barrels from about 200 liters to 5000 liters. The flavor varies both on the size of the barrel and the length of time it is fermented. Larger vats produce a fruitier taste. The Port is 18 to 20 percent alcohol. We sampled three different ports: white, red, and a 20-year-old tawny. The tawny was by far the best in my opinion.
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| Sandeman Brand |
We docked in Pinhão for the night. We took a short walk to the train station to see the picture tiles of the Douro valley and the making of wine.
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| Pinhão Train Station |
That night we had entertainment from a local trio.
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