Spain/Portugal) Wine lovers and those who sailed Douro please advise me

My daughter and I often do destination vacations based on wine regions. We have been on 2 river cruises Rhine and Danube and 40 Ocean cruises. We are looking at Douro, but are not fans of port wine. We prefer Cabs and Merlots. We are not looking to do a wine cruise per se, but many of the excursions to wineries talk about tastings of port wines.

Is that all there is? Based on tours, would we be unhappy and only offered port wines? We did enjoy our Rhine cruise but not all tastings were Riesling. Just wondering if other wine lovers but not port lovers can give me their view point. And of course, I know the ship will serve Cabs and Merlots and the scenery is gorgeous. But my thread is all about the wine.

thanks

I took a Douro cruise with Uniworld a few years ago, and am returning next May to cruise with Emerald. It's true that Port is featured on these cruises because the Douro is its home and it is one of the great wines of the world. However, you are not the only one who doesn't care for Port and even though a different Port was served to conclude every dinner on my Uniworld cruise, it is only one of many wines produced in Portugal and you will certainly be able to enjoy them both on ship and ashore. There were often people at the table who declined the glass of port, and I and others were only too happy to enjoy their glasses.

Having said that, you will very likely be unable to find wines labelled Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot, or ones that even contain wine from those grapes. Portugal grows about 250 varieties of grapes and nearly all of them are native to that country. There are a few imports grown in Portugal such as Alicante Bouschet and Aragones (i.e. Tempranillo), but most of the grapes are not found outside of Portugal.

Moreover, wines in Portugal are not generally sold under the name of the grape but rather by the area in which they originate. DOC (Denominação de Origem Controlada) are from about 30 specific geographic areas and have regulations on which grapes may be used. It's the equivlent of the French Appellation Controlée. There are also regionally labelled wines (Vinho Regional) from the 14 wine regions of the country.

There are many fine dry red Portuguese wines, if that is what you prefer, and you need only ask the staff on board for their recommendations. The Douro Region makes some very good dry red wines, for example, as does the Dão. Keep an open mind and you will discover many excellent new wines. You might even get to enjoy port when tasting it in its home.

We cruised the Douro with Viking in 2016. We had two port wine tastings and a muscatel tasting. Neither my DH nor I care for port, but it was interesting to learn about the different types and taste some, especially the white port. Having said that, we loved the red wines available on the ship. We always buy the Silver Spirits package and enjoy studying the wine list to choose a bottle of wine with dinner. There were several good choices, all local (Portuguese), and the bar and wait staff helped us choose. Also, at the port tastings, the retail part of the tour had a wide selection of red and white table wines to buy, so we took some chances and were never disappointed with what we bought.

On our recent Viking Douro cruise, Port was the highlight of course. However, as Laverendrye said above. there are many fine Portuguese table wines. Because of the high summer temperatures in Portugal and Spain, the grapes tend to be on the smaller side and have very thick skins. This makes very full bodied wines similar to Cabs, Merlots, Grenaches, and Mouvedres I wouldn't go with the Silver Spirits package -- buy several bottles in town or at a winery you visit and bring them on board. The included red with dinner isn't too bad either although it was the same every night except one.

Port is the best know, fortified wine (20% abv), from Porto and the Douro river (not only red port, but white as well). BUT there are many fine red wines produced along the Douro, both in Portugal and Spain. You must have a "Total Wine and more" store somewhere near you...visit and take a look at the selection. Here is their internet listing of Portugal reds- the ratings are an indication of quality they produce....instead of Cab. S. their major grape is Touriga Nacional- both 100% and blends. A lighter wine grape as mentioned above is the Tempranillo. Check out the Total wine listing of Spanish reds as well. And... don't forget the whites- from just north of Porto, Portugal, in the Galicia region of Spain the important white is the Albarino.

http://www.totalwine.com/wine/red-wine/c/000009?state=portugal&viewall=true

The best red wine we had during our Viking Douro cruise was on the day we went to Salamanca, Spain. Our first stop was a indoor food market. While walking around, we were served tapas and wine. We were served Epica Roble 2016. It was soooo good; not too dry and not too sweet. I think I had 3 glasses. Too bad you can't buy it here in the states. I've looked!

My daughter and I often do destination vacations based on wine regions. We have been on 2 river cruises Rhine and Danube and 40 Ocean cruises. We are looking at Douro, but are not fans of port wine. We prefer Cabs and Merlots. We are not looking to do a wine cruise per se, but many of the excursions to wineries talk about tastings of port wines.

 

Is that all there is? Based on tours, would we be unhappy and only offered port wines? We did enjoy our Rhine cruise but not all tastings were Riesling. Just wondering if other wine lovers but not port lovers can give me their view point. And of course, I know the ship will serve Cabs and Merlots and the scenery is gorgeous. But my thread is all about the wine.

Portugal has some great wines from several different regions, including the Douro Valley. Not just ports. As someone else said, they are featured because Porto is where they're made, but I wouldn't worry about it. Obviously they're not going to serve them for dinner. Do some reading on the region and you can decide for yourself.

We did the Douro with AMA in 2015. It did happen to be a wine themed but most of the excursions were the same on this cruise as on their non wine theme sailings. The options for excursions, IMO and IME, were much more limited than on the other European itineraries we have taken.

While I enjoy a glass of port, I much prefer a good red wine and we had the opportunity to enjoy a great variety of this on our AMA excursions. A favorite was a tour of a small winery, located in the countryside, which included a very nice tasting of several varietals and a lovely picnic under the trees. Overall, we did more wine tasting than port tasting.

My all time favorite for wine and overall cruise remains the Rhone. I highly recommend it over any other for lovers of wine. Bordeaux for me did not come close. While the wines were very good, the ports themselves left a lot to be desired, based on our other experiences in France. We loved Bordeaux itself, and have been back to stay again since, but the rest of the ports were not among our favorites.