Caves Vasconcellos — Attraction in Vila Nova de Gaia

Take my advice, you'll find much better port wine houses to visit in Porto than Vasconcellos. The people at Caves Vasconcellos are unwelcoming to say at least, if not outright dishonest. It says "Vasconcellos" in the wall, but they sell you something else.

The longer story:

1. They wouldn't offer a tasting, unless "if you are planning to buy". They do have prices by glass, but you don't feel very comfortable tasting if you know you are expected to buy.
2. They tried to sell us very premium port wines: e.g. a miniature set including a 80-year old port. Somehow all the cheaper bottles just happened to be sold out, so the prices started at closer to 30 € per bottle.
3. When we opted for a relatively inexpensive miniature set, it turned out later it wasn't Vasconcellos at all. We didn't see the bottles when buying - we relied on the information stated in their menu which just mentioned the ages and types of port. So when unpacking the miniature set it turned out to be Butler & Nephew port, not Vasconcellos. We felt betrayed to...

A bunch of hustlers, the wine is ok but the sales process is quite bad. They pay a guy to stand outside and draw people in which is your first red flag. They say they don’t do tastings, only samples if you want to buy a bottle. I was quite interested in buying one but I wanted to try first.

After they pour a few glasses, with no explanation or service otherwise, I found them good but pretty unremarkable for the price compared to similar wineries. I told them I didn’t want to buy, and he says it’s 20 Euro unless I buy a bottle. Not an unfair price for the tasting, but they should be upfront about the price and say that the tasting will be deducted if you buy a bottle rather than using pressure tactics.

Edit: Just to be clear, there was no menu and the fellow who helped me made a big point to say there are ‘no tastings’ and no price list was given. I ended up buying a bottle after all, but they should have been...

A really disappointing experience. I have never ever given 1 star before, but a bald man with glasses came out of the winery and (seeing that we were ready to order) he immediately felt that he needed to tell us “We don’t sell by the glass” and essentially not to bother coming in to try wines unless we were willing to “buy by the bottle.” So rude! I would never recommend this to anyone. I read on the website that they do do tastings but clearly you are not welcome unless you are willing to spend a lot on top of the tastings! I’ve never been made to feel more judged. However, I DO recommend, on the other hand, Ramos Pintos! It’s a few doors down and you actually feel like you...