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| Before |
On my last day in Porto, before heading towards Spain, I went to the ribeira in search of some port wine. As expected, there were many restaurants to choose from. There was an expensive-looking wine cellar that offered a wine tour and tasting, but there was no one outside to greet customers and I didn't bother finding out how much a tour would cost. Right next to it was a restaurant that looked more suitable for my budget. The wine-tasting offer was only 5 euros. I seated myself at an outdoor table, facing the river. There was only one other solo diner. The rest were couples.
The waitress put 5 tiny wine glasses in front of me, and 5 bottles of port wine of varying colors. Then she poured the wines into the glasses, filling them to the brims. There were white & dry, white, pink, tawny and burgundy. My favorites were white & dry and burgundy, as they were the most similar to normal red and white wines. The others were a little too sweet for my liking.
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| The restaurant owner looking at me, perhaps with concern, as I tried to finish all the wines on my own |
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| Then he offered to take my pictures for me |
Apart from the sweetness level, I can't comment much on the other attributes of the wines. I can't tell whether a wine is full-bodied or not, whether it's fruity or woody, without reading the labels. I don't really give a shit about all that when choosing a wine anyway. What I look at is the alcohol content. And as far as alcohol content goes, port wine doesn't disappoint. I used to think that all sweet drinks were low in alcohol content, but clearly that's not the case with port wine. The ones that I had had at least 19.5% alcohol in them. It was only 2 in the afternoon and I was already getting tipsy.
But all was good. I took my time sipping from each glass and munching on the crackers, while making use of the free wifi at the restaurant. Finally, after more than an hour, here's what was left:
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| After |
