Joe Canal's Travels to Portugal - Day 2

Every Thursday, the BottleBlog will feature an update on various exciting things going on at Joe Canal's: Reports of our travels, special event coverage, and more! Today we're back in Portugal with Brandon Bartfalvi and the gang.


All of our Managers and wine staff travel at least once a year to important wine growing regions. Visiting these wine regions is one of the many aspects that sets Joe Canal's apart from other wine shops. We know that by meeting the wine makers, walking the vineyards and tasting the wine directly from the barrel, we can see first-hand the passion that goes into each bottle. We can then convey that commitment to quality to our customers. Rather than have you just look at a label or a score, we believe that it is our responsibility to bring you closer to how the wine was made and to the people who made it.

In June 2010, Brandon Bartfalvi, Wine Manager of the Lawrenceville store, had the privilege of traveling to Portugal and immersing himself in Portuguese food, culture, and most importantly, wine!

Day 1 - Graham's and Dow's

We left our hotel (Hotel de Bolsa in Oporto) and took three cars to the Graham’s Lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia across the Douro River from our hotel. This was a short trip and the day was simply beautiful. When we arrived at the Lodge we were met at the door by our tour guide and the tour started immediately. We wandered through the barrel rooms and various other chambers throughout the Grahams Lodge. We were joined by another guide who also showed us around the facilities and showed us a brief film and provided us with a description of the various Ports that Graham’s produces. After some photo opportunities we ventured into the cellars to see all of the back vintages that were still stored below the building.

As a side note, all the bottles were kept under lock and key (and I couldn’t talk them into giving me a copy). It was amazing to see all of the older vintages that they still had on hand. Some of the wines will be re- released into the market a little at a time while others are for their family functions.

After our tour we traveled to the head offices and met with Rupert Symington. Rupert showed us to the conference room where we had beverages (water and coffee) while he led us through a brief meeting explaining the business model and history of his family’s company. The presentation lasted over an hour but the time did fly by quickly and I think he couldn’t wait to get to the next part of our tour, the Sample Room.

Rupert had pre-selected several bottles of Port that would provide us with the range of wines that the company is producing. We started with basics, Ruby and Tawny, then progressed to Reserves, LBV’s, Vintage and single Quinta Ports. This was the only way to really understand Port: By tasting each style side-by-side to see the differences and similarities. Rupert explained each wine to us and the significance of each. The best surprise was at the end: Somebody saw that there was a Warre’s Vintage Port 1882 (yes, 1882!) open at the end of the table and happened to mention it to Rupert. Well. Short story even shorter, we got to smell and taste the wonderful elixir!!! All I can say is, AMAZING!

After a brief stroll through the facilities, we made our way into the cellars with Rupert and viewed several old vintages of Dow’s Port.

I really wish I could have had the key here also. Rupert explained the plans for the bottles kept here and even told us the we will see the sold-out 2007 vintage Dows Port in the market again (in ten years, boo!!). At this point you could tell we were all in the mood to have some lunch but more importantly, we were all in the mood to have something to drink. Rupert was in that same mood.

How can you top that so early in the day?? Oh yeah!! have lunch with two other Directors from the Symington family. We had a delightfully informal lunch, just helped ourselves to food and walked around mingling with each other. We talked about the Port market in the USA, our trip and the World Cup. We had a great lunch and good conversation and made our way out to the backyard (which overlooked the city of Oporto).

We jumped back in the car and left for the train station. The train follows the Douro River up into the Upper Douro and to our destination: Pinhao.

When we arrived at in Pinhao, we drank a few wines and then it was time for dinner. I won’t get into details but every meal was like the best home-cooked meal that you ever had. Every night was better than the previous.

Besides the delicious food we also had great bottles of wine every night (by the way, since this is a Dow’s property, the house Port is Dow’s 20 Year Old Tawny). On this evening we had a delicious bottle of Dow’s Vale do Bomfim Douro Tinto and a surprise bottle of Dow’s Vintage Port 1966 (and it was ridiculously good).