Porto calls
Updated: 2016-03-16 08:04
By Erik Nilsson(China Daily)
|
|||||||||
![]() |
The best way to explore Porto's shores is by boat. Photos by Erik Nilsson/China Daily |
Portugal's wine city and the river valley from which its port pours sculpt the profile of a region shaped by grapes in every sense. Erik Nilsson explores its shores.
Wine wrought the Douro Valley.
Its inhabitants have spent the past two millennia carving livings out of the shale mountains that nosedive into the river, whittling the peaks into terraces clutched by grapevines.
Nearly 50,000 of the region's 250,000 hectares have been lathed into hundreds of liana-wrapped honey-dipper tips.
The world's oldest demarcated wine region remains rugged.
Some residents of neighboring Porto city say of this hinterland: "The women are men. And the men are werewolves."
(The valley folk may take exception.)
This is the home-the sole source-of port wine.
The fermentation of the wine made from grapes here is incapacitated by brandy that's at least 77 percent alcohol to halt fermentation and preserve the sugars that give port its hyperactively saccharine character, relegating it exclusively to the realms of aperitif or digestive.
This beverage is both born of, and has sired, the culture this land has forged-a culture that has, in turn, reshaped the land's contours.
The fruits of local labor bejewel the leaves that sheathe the bouncing topography, festooning verdure plumage with clusters of sapphire, emerald and ruby.
The UNESCO World Heritage site is a place where such wineries as Quinta da Pacheca still squish grapes with human feet.
Visitors prance atop the fruit to traditional music around the September harvest.
- Putin says Russians to start withdrawing from Syria, as peace talks resume
- Merkel says Sunday's state elections 'make her party think'
- Canberra's Balloon Spectacular festival kicks off
- Germanwings crash caused deliberately by mentally ill copilot: BEA
- Second car bomb in a month kills 34 in Turkish capital, Ankara
- German voters batter Merkel over migrant policy
Infographics: All you need to know about Premier's press conference
Now and then photos of Shanghai Jiaotong University
Post-90s quits his job to make traditional paper umbrellas
In pictures: Destroying fake and shoddy products
Armless farmer builds new hands for himself, others
The world in photos: March 7 - March 13
China's booming IT industry helps drones fly high
This 'mermaid' left broadcasting for a watery world
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
![]()
|
Today's Top News
What ends Jeb Bush's White House hopes
Investigation for Nicolas's campaign
Will US-ASEAN meeting be good for region?
Accentuate the positive in Sino-US relations
Dangerous games on peninsula will have no winner
National Art Museum showing 400 puppets in new exhibition
Finest Chinese porcelains expected to fetch over $28 million
Monkey portraits by Chinese ink painting masters
US Weekly
![]()
|
![]()
|