Aboard the Good Ship Yeatman

View of Oporto across the Douro

If you have been following along with my Portugal posts you may recall that on the second day of the Wine Pleasures pre-tour we stayed overnight at the newly opened Yeatman Hotel. The Yeatman is built into the hillside above the Douro on the Vila de Gia side of the river. The grand open spaces, nautical details and juxtaposition to the river give it the feeling of a luxury ocean liner with all the rooms oriented towards the river, each with a private terrace.

Grand staircase leading to Lobby

After the Wine Pleasures tour I returned to the Yeatman to visit the private wine cellar and view the rest of the property. I stayed on for few days and got to unwind after a jam packed schedule.

The Yeatman is designed not only to take full advantage of the glorious views of Porto across the river. But also to highlight the wine producers of the region. Rooms are named after different wineries and showcase their wine. For die-hard oenophiles one of the Barrel rooms may be to your liking. That's right, you get to sleep inside a barrel.

Sweet dreams of fermentation

A tour of the impressive cellars turned up a few surprises, like a bottle of Ridge Monte Bello from my home state of California. The plan is to allow guests to visit the cellar between 4-6pm and select a bottle for dinner, then based on their selection, the Yeatman chefs create a meal to pair with the wine. I love this idea. It would be worth a trip back just to experience this concept alone. But with all those wines to choose from I'd need to stay a month or more! Below is a brief slide show of what the cellars hold.

One special highlight of my was the lunch I had in the dining room. I dined alone with only the view as my companion and the attentive staff. Dining solo in this type of setting allows you to focus entirely on the food and not feel compelled to make idle chit-chat. Not that I don't like to share, it's just a gift to have things to yourself sometimes. Although I did not partake of any of the Yeatman Spa offerings while I was there, my meal in the hands of chef Ricardo Costa was like a full spa treatment for the taste buds.

To start I had a glass of the 2009 Crasto and the first Amuse bouche set in Three Spoons--

Black Spoon: Scallops with apricot, green asparagus and beurre blanc.

Sliver Spoon: Smoked duck with foie gras, portuguese blood sausage and caviar

White Spoon: Sea urchin cream with caviar

Macaron of Serra del Estrela cheese

Foie gras truffle

Amuse bouche 2: Tuna terrine with foie gras and oyster yogurt and mushroom dust.

First Course: National Octopus with Crab cannelloni, sun dried tomato bread, molecular olives and green tomato consomme with olive oil.

Second: Megrim (a type of white fish) with vitelote potato flakes, vegetable gratin and fennel sauce.

Third: Algrave Almond cheesecake, spearmint sorbet, with hailed orange juice sorbet and vanilla with Taylors 2004 LBV Port.

Coffee and Mignardises ( Pasteis de Belem shown above)

The only thing that pulled me out of my reverie with the meal was the odd background soundtrack playing muzak versions of I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady, Frank Sinatra's The Lady is a Tramp, U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and most strange of all the Theme from MASH--Suicide Is Painless ...um what SiriusXM Channel is that?

The Yeatman is an experience with a capital E. It's luxurious, but not in an oppressive old-guard way--it's light and modern and accommodating in a most gracious way. It's worth a visit for the views alone. Stop in for a port cocktail in the laid-back bar overlooking the Douro and see if you don't feel like you are about to float away on the Good Ship Yeatman.

Portugal Part 4: A Visit to Sandeman & Vini Portugal

I thought Port was a sweet fortified wine you drank after dinner. Port was Port. But boy, was I wrong. It turns out there are many kinds of port—Ruby, Tawny, Vintage and the Special Vintage Reserve. There’s Pink and White and LBV and Colheita and Crusted and Single Quinta Vintages. Also 10, 20, 30, and 40 year vintages. But not all aged Port is from the same year, it can be any combination of years that add up to 10, 20, 30 or 40 years. It’s like the sudoku of winemaking.

Port seems way more complicated than needs be, so forget trying to sort it all out in the beginning and just start tasting. But don’t be surprised if after trying many styles, you become intrigued and desire more in-depth information. Then Oporto (aka Porto) is the place to go. Actually, Vila Nova de Gaia, just across the river, is the place. All the major Port caves and cellars are here including Calem, Kopke, Cockburn, Offley, Croft, Rozes, Taylors, Graham and of course Sandeman.

Sandeman

Even if you don’t know Sandeman Port you certainly have seen their branding with the iconic image of the caped man. Throughout our tour of the cellars we were shadowed by a woman in the hat and cape, a living logo that added to the drama of the tasting.

But by far the most dramatic moment of the Sandeman tour came in the Sandeman cellar when one of the Hollywood TV hosts from our group asked the winemaker to pour a barrel sample from the thief, directly into her mouth, creating an improvised Port shower. Well, Sandeman is a classy place, so you can imagine the gaping jaws when this occurred. Highly unusual behavior in such a hallowed and august Port house. Yes indeedy it was quite the scene…I only wish I had some pictures to share!! (Um hello @aneeshb or @terencecarter ... please send photos. I will post and link to your page.) Not something you see everyday, or ever for that matter.

UPDATE: This just in! Here is a photo!

After the cellar tour we were served two types of Port cocktails. The Sandeman Founder on the Rocks made with Founders Reserve Porto over ice and the Sandeman Royal prepared with Sandeman’s 20 Years Tawny Porto and Scotch Whisky. It was the first of many Port cocktails I would have in Portugal and they became an evening ritual for the remainder of the trip.

At dinner I was seated at George Sandeman’s table and I later heard that George personally chose who would sit at his table after looking at everyone’s blog. So that was nice to hear. I guess he took a peek at my blog on a good week!

The dinner was exceptional, especially the Sea Bass entree that was baked encrusted in salt, and arrived on a platter looking like it was ready for a Saveur photo shoot . The sea bass paired perfectly with the 2009 Quinta de Azvedo Vinho Verde. We also enjoyed the Sandeman 20 year Tawny with an apple and roqufort salad; the 2000 Sandeman Vau Vintage Porto with chocolate mousse; and with coffee, the Sandeman 40 year old Tawny. I loved the richness of the 40 year tawny.

George proved to be a witty conversationalist and it was a pleasure to be seated at his table. He also gave us a quick lesson in the nuance of Port, when the 20 year Port was served. We all tasted it and then George declared it was not exactly as it should be, that it was "flat"--immediately all the glasses were removed and a new bottle poured. I honestly don't know what he detected in the first bottle, but I did notice a difference in the second pour. It definitely tasted more lively, the flavors more pronounced and defined than the first.

It’s always great to be able to experience something like that even if it is not intentional. I learned a lot from that episode and was able to tune in to the differences in Port much better after that accidental object lesson. Like I said at the beginning, there is a lot more to Port than you might think, and spending time learning all about it from the experts is the best way to move from being a Port drinker to Port lover.

Vini Portugal—

Of course there is more than Port in Porto and if you want to learn more about all the incredible table wines being produced in Portugal head over to Vini Portugal. Vini Portugal is a trade organization promoting wine production and producers in Portugal. You can learn about the different regions and try the wines of the day in their stylish tasting room in the historic stock exchange building near the river.

Miguel Nora, Sr. Manager for Vini Portugal hosted us afterwards at Restaurante O Comercial located in the Palácio da Bolsa - the stock exchange building in Oporto. I almost foolishly missed out on this event because I was feeling under the weather, but I'm glad I attended.

A stylish version of traditional bacalhau

It was a great opportunity to drink some wonderful Portuguese wines paired with traditional Portugese cuisine. And I got to check out the world’s most trippy writstwatch on Miguel’s wrist. I was convinced he could control the thermostat of his home or office and launch small missiles with it, it but he insisted it only told the time, albeit in a very stylish manner.

View from guest room at the Yeatman Hotel

We stayed at the magnificent Yeatman Hotel the night we visited Sandeman, and after a full day of touring three Quintas in the Minho, I was a bit exhausted by the time we got there. But it was such a brief visit I went back after the blogger trip to experience it again. I'll tell you more about The Yeatman in a separate post. But for now, here's a quick room tour featuring another drive-thru window!

Visiting the Port cellars without a trip to the growing region in the Douro, would be like visiting a museum of flight and aeronautics, but never flying in an airplane. You miss a huge part of the experience if you don’t go to the Douro. I’ll show you why in the next posts.

Links to all Portugal Posts:

Part 1: The Conference Venue

Part 2: The Wine Pleasures Conference

Part 3: The Minho Land of Vinho Verde

Part 4: A Visit to Sandeman & Vini Portugal

Part 5: The Douro & Visit to Quinta Nova

Part 6: Croft Vineyards & Portrait of Adrian Bridge

Part 7: Foodie Feast at Rui Paula's DOC on the Douro

Part 8: Quinta da Pacheca Lodge and Cellars

Videos in the Annex:

The Lagare Collection--What Hipsters Wear to Tread

Slow Travel in Portugal

The Tiles of Portugal