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 During the stopover in Povoa de Varzim, Rally Portugal participants will have the opportunity to tour the city of
Porto and visit the Taylor Fladgate port wine lodge.
Wine has been produced in the
Douro region for hundreds of years, and in 1756 the 'Douro Wine Company' was founded to guarantee quality and pricing. This makes the
Douro the third oldest protected wine region in the world. Port has been popular in
Britain since at least 1703, when the Methuen Treaty allowed merchants to import the wine at a low rate of duty.
Taylors can trace its history back to 1682, and the company has made wine at the Casa dos Alambiques since 1744. For a period during the early 1800s the Casa was used as a field hospital for
Wellington's troops, then fighting Napoleon's forces in the Peninsular War.
 Port is a fortified wine, and only port from
Portugal can be labelled as port or porto. The wine is made from several varieties of grapes grown in the
Douro region, and is fortified by aguardente, a grape spirit. The port is then aged, usually in oak barrels, in a cave (cellar).
Port was traditionally transported from the caves down the Douro river to the
port of
Vila Nova de Gaia near
Porto using barcos rabelos, flat-bottomed boats with a square sail. The barcos rabelos can still be seen on the river, but they no longer carry the port commercially.
A visit to
Taylor's will enable the participants to see how port is produced, and of course, to taste the end product!
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