Caves Ferreira — Attraction in Vila Nova de Gaia

I researched quite a bit before I chose the Ferreira Caves port vintage wine tour, and it did not disappoint. We were a small group of six people with the tour starting at the bottom of the building . Our tour guide brought us through the whole facility starting with an explanation of where the Duro River runs, what type of boats were used to carry the port, and the fascinating history of how Ferreira got started. Next, we were taken through the halls where the enormous barrels that hold thousands of liters of port wine were. The whole building is all underground and you eventually walk up long dark tunnels while seeing their vintage port storage area,equipment used to make the wine, and even why the floor is made of 4 x 4 inch wood pieces, which was one of the most interesting things we learned about. If the weather gets too hot, they are able to wet the entire floor facility, the wood absorbs the water which makes more humidity and cools down the area for the wine, pretty amazing! When we finish the tour, we were actually at the top of the hill in a garden area. During the next part of the tour, we walked across the street into another building and were escorted to a small intimate beautiful room with hand painted Azulejos tiles. Four glasses of different types of port as well as vintage ones were waiting for us to taste. Once our tour guide was finished explaining the differences between each wine, our small group got to stay and enjoy them for as long as we wanted. Fabulous experience with a small group of people and a beautiful intimate room to share amazing...

For me it's NO. Online booking for 2 adults and 1 child: one adult is intolerant to alcohol, sent an email before booking (to find out if we had to pay full ticket without drinking), no response. So let's book for 1 adult and 2 children by writing this in the notes. No reply. When we arrived at reception, they told us that the full ticket had to be paid (no problem obviously) but the price had increased... €21 instead of €19 booked online 3 days before. We are not. The visit: the girl who was the guide today 5/1/24 spoke in English too fast. As already written by others, it is clear that they want to hurry, stay within the 50 minutes indicated and if you fall behind they won't wait for you. Then lengthen the time or give less information. Tasting: we were at the tail of the group and we were the last to arrive at the tables. Surprise, there were not 3 seats together, the tables were few and small. We had to squeeze 3 of us into a seat for 1 (with a 5 year old). The girl guide had no interest in making us sit normally, she solved her problem to stay for the 52 minutes of the visit, she exceeded by 2 minutes. I was hoping not to make a "touristy", "mass", "industrial" visit but instead that's exactly what I did. Probably in line with the quality and market positioning of their product. In Italy, in the Langhe, where there are some renowned and phenomenal wines, for 20 euros I do a tasting in the cellars with 3-5 excellent wines and accompanying food. I do not recommend...

My boyfriend and I really enjoyed our tour and tasting here. We did the 10:15am tour on 9/19/23, the group tour in English. Our tour guide was really great- very nice and approachable and took time to answer everyones questions. It was a well-designed 40-60 min tour that explains the basics of Port wine while strolling through the facility and stopping to explain things along the way. then a tasting of 3 selections of Port after. For the tasting, the 3 ports are set up already at long picnic tables inside the tasting room. It was a fun way to taste wines in a comfortable environment and get to chat the with the rest of the group after the tour as well, if you like. We also purchased port wines to take home- our tour guide helped us choose, that did well surviving the plane trip home, as they are already packaged appropriately upon purchase. I would highly recommend this fun tour. (ps: A travel guide I used implied you generally don't need to make a reservation but I would disagree- they do fill up so if you know what day you'd like, you should, or least once you've arrived in the Porto area. We walked in one afternoon and they were all full for the day, so we booked for the next day with...