Sailing - Sailing! I am really enjoying this cruise because we sail during the day and we are docked at night. So: morning or afternoon excursions, and lovely relaxing scenery during the day when we sail. There is no navigation on the river at night, hence the daytime sail. There are also several locks to navigate.

Our day in Regua at the Wine Museum was informative and then, of course, a wine tasting. This is the building where they used to the tasting and the wine control. We learned that the port wines are "blind" judged with just a serial number on the bottle, and then labeled afterwards. The traditional method was to then stock them on shelves labeled with the name of each town from which they came.
FYI: white port becomes more amber as it ages; tawny port gets lighter with time and ruby port gets darker.

The wine was produced, put into barrels and then taken downstream on boats to this building. The barrels were placed on flat-bottom boats that were easier to move downstream during the winter floods.

In the evening we were treated to a "typical" :Portugese dinner at a special winery. Entertainment, wine info and then several courses of "interesting" food! It ended with grappa - I did the "shot"!

The following day I went on the visit to Croft Winery, and had a walk thru the vineyards. This area is the oldest wine growing region. They have been growing wines here for 2000 years! Croft dates back to 1703. Interesting Note: a virus attacked the vines in the 1880's and almost completely destroyed the wine industry. They discovered that the rootstock from America was resistant to the virus. To this day they plant the American rootstock, and then graft the variety of grapes they are growing onto that rootstock.
Photo note: the vieyards are planted on hillside terraces here. Some varieties like being closer to the river, others like up higher. Croft had it all. Fascinating artifact: a straw raincoat that workers wore in the fields when pruning the vines in the rainy-season.