Muscateers

Saturday, November 8, 2025

We disembarked this morning at Pocinho for an excursion to Favaios and lunch at Quinta Avessada. We are now in the heart of the port wine region.

Not long after we started our bus trip, we had nice views of the river. This is not our boat.

Our buses left the riverfront and started climbing up steep, narrow, winding roads without any sort of guardrails. Not my favorite type of drive. The vineyards all around us were beautiful, with a touch of fall color. 

We ascended more hilly country until we arrived at the village of Favaios (pop. 1,000). Our bus stopped first at the Favaios wine Co-op. Here a local guide discussed the operations of the co-op.  First, he explained a little about port and muscatel. Port wine is a denomination of origin (DO) product, and it is highly regulated. It must be made from grapes grown in the Douro region, and the grapes must be grown at specific altitudes.

The altitude of Favaios is a little too high to meet the port wine standards. The farmers of Favaios tried to get an exemption for their grapes, but they were not successful. Eventually in the 1950’s they succeeded in getting Muscatel classified as a DO wine for grapes grown at a higher altitude. They also formed a cooperative to produce wine from their grapes. It wasn’t possible for the small farmers in the region to produce wine on their own. The co-op started out with 100 farmers, but they now have about 500 members in the cooperative. The wine produced by the co-op has won international prizes and the winery is in operation all year long.

We were shown around the facility while the winemaking process was explained. Unlike most wines, the process for making sweet wines such as port and muscatel is short. They stop the fermentation early so the sugar of the grapes remains in the wine. At the end they add brandy or grappa to fortify the wine. It is not aged for a long time. The result is muscatel, or moscatel, a sweet wine similar to port.

This device measures the sweetness of the grapes when they are delivered to the co-op

In addition to metal tanks, they use concrete tanks, but only for three days

Oak barrels are not always used, but they are used for certain vintages

After tasting some wine, we left the winery and walked through the village to a small  bakery. On the way we passed an old building with a curious sign over the door. This used to be a public school. The girls and boys used separate entrances.

At the bakery, we learned about the distinctive four-cornered bread that is made by hand only in Favaios. We met one of the bakers and watched her make the bread. Then we each got a loaf to eat. It was good, but not “special” other than the shape. Apparently, everyone in the village eats this bread every day, so the few remaining bakers are quite busy.

It was fun to meet the baker as part of a small group of around 15, and see her make the four-cornered loaves. 

Our third stop was a small museum about the bread and wine made in Favaios. It was not much. Most of the information had already been covered in the first two stops. Nevertheless, I appreciated the town’s sense of itself and its history. They figured out what they were good at and how to attract tourists.

We took a very short ride on our bus to Quinta Avessada. A “quinta” is a wine estate. Quinta Avessada seemed to be a restaurant/inn in the middle of acres of vineyards. It had a lovely view. We had some wine on the patio while we waited for the other buses.

The black stakes you can see among the grapevines are not wood - they are schist (similar to slate) and very heavy. They absorb heat from the sun and transfer it to the ground to keep it warmer

We had a country-style Portuguese lunch inside the restaurant. With wine, of course.

The drive back down to the river offered some stunning views. The boat quickly departed and we saw the loveliest scenery on both sides of the river.

Olive trees and grape vines

Hugo gave his nightly presentation, including the weird Portuguese phrase for today: Calado és poeta, or “In silence, you are a poet.” In other words, you sound better when you don’t speak.

The final event before dinner was the VES cocktail party for all the passengers who have been guests on Viking previously. You really don’t need to buy the drinks package on this cruise - there are so many free drinks.

We chose not to attend the game night tonight. We have had several long days in a row and it was nice to go back to our cabin a little earlier. The boat spent the night in Régua, a quiet town.

Today’s fabric is damask. A damask fabric has a reversible woven pattern.It is often found in table linens, such as this napkin from our lunch at Quinta Avessanda.