Porto: History by the Glass

The Euro 2004 tournament will be played in eight great Portuguese cities. Here's a guide to some of their delights:

Raise a glass of sweet, velvety port in the evening, and all at once you're part of a time-honored tradition—because the port-wine area in Portugal's Douro region is home to the world's oldest formal wine demarcation. In 1756, Prime Minister Marques de Pombal enacted this measure partly in hopes of reducing the power of British exporters who'd taken a liking to Portuguese wine when relations with France soured. It failed on that score; British and Portuguese wine producers continued to flourish side by side. Their vineyards adjoined on the steep, schist hillsides along the banks of the Douro River, from its mouth on the Atlantic all the way up to the Spanish border. To this day, most of the wine warehouses, called caves do vinho do porto (lodges), in Vila Nova de Gaia across from the city of Porto are run by three big companies from both nations. Sogrape owns several old vintners, such as Ferreira and Sandeman. Real Companhia Velha makes Royal Oporto. British giant Symington remains family owned.

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Indeed, some of the wine's most passionate defenders have come from Britain. In 1831, a young Englishman, Joseph James Forrester, came to Porto, learned Portuguese, mapped the Douro region, wrote treatises on grape growing and exhorted the wine growers to stop adulterating their wines with sugar, elderberry and brandy. That legacy lives on in the large, dark, cool cave of Graham's, part of the Symington group and typical of the lodges open to tourists. Visitors learn every step of the wine-making process while taking in the strong smell of aging wine and grand views of the old city of Porto across the river. The lodges are open daily for wine tasting. Check with local hotel concierges for details.

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