If you are in Porto / Gaia and you have only time to visit one lodge… well, then I suggest Graham’s 1890 Lodge. This place has exactly what I would be looking for while visiting a lodge: An interesting tour by qualified guides, a beautiful lodge, fantastic views over Porto and Gaia, very good tasting opportunities and even a top-notch-restaurant. Just one little thing: While most of the other Lodges are all somehow close together and relatively flat near the water, Graham’s 1890 Lodge is further away from the river and higher up the mountain – which makes it more difficult to reach it. When I do my annual Lodge tour through Gaia, I normally take a cab and drive to this lodge – and then afterwards it’s easy to walk down the hill to the other lodges.
First of all: While the lodge itself is pretty old (as the name suggests, it dates back to 1890) it was totally remodeled in 2012-13. The Symington family (which owns Graham’s) put a lot of money into it – and they want to make sure that nothing spoils the visitor experience. It starts with the staff. Normally Graham’s has tour guides from at least 10 different countries in it’s crew – and they are all well trained. The company provides an outstanding program for new tour guides – it’s very rare that a tour guide gets confronted with a question that he can’t answer.
The tour provides amazing photo opportunities: 2,000 “regular” Port Wine barrels (“pipas” in Portuguese) and 40 massive casks; in addition there are thousands and thousands of vintage bottles. Some of them are dating back to the mid of the 19th century… others are brand-new. The Symington family often doesn’t release all (if any) of the Single Quinta Vintage Ports until they are ready to drink – which can be around 7-10 years or longer. And some of those are stored here in the lodge. An impressing amount of bottles.
However, what I really like about the tour is what happens after the tour: The tasting. The visitors have several options to taste very interesting Ports at very reasonable prices. The more common Ports are served in “The Tasting Room”, the more sophisticaed Ports are served in “The Private Vintage Room” – which is a beautiful place and that alone makes it worthwhile to upgrade the tasting.
These are currently the tastings in the Tasting Room:
Classica (Graham’s Six Grapes Reserve Ruby, Late Bottled Vintage and 10 year Old Tawny) EUR 8,00
Premium Port (Six Grapes, Crusted Port, Quinta dos Malvedos Vintage Port) EUR 12,00
Premium Tawny (Graham’s The Tawny, 10 year old Tawny, 20 year old Tawny) EUR 12,00
In the Vintage Room the following tastings are available:
The Graham’s (Six Grapes, 30 year old Tawny, Graham’s Vintage 2000) EUR 20,00
Super Premium Tawny (Graham’s 30 Year old Tawny, 40 year old Tawny, Single Harvest 1982) EUR 30,00
Super Premium Vintage Port (Graham’s Vintage Ports 1983, 2000 and 2011) EUR 30,00
Luxury (Graham’s Single Harvest 1952) EUR 50
These are all solid Ports – and I can spend hours and hours with these tastings.
Should you now be hungry, then just walk over into VINUM, the restaurant integrated into the lodge. Outstanding food – and of course great wines from the Symington brands. I just love the fact that you can sit in the restaurant and order as dessert another 20 or 40 year old Tawny – and you know that this wines matured for all those years just a few yards away from your table in the Graham’s lodge… magic.
Opening hours:
From April to October: every day from 9:30 to 18:00 (last visit 17:30).
From November to March: every day from 9:30 to 17:30 (last visit 17:00PM), except December 25th and January 1st.
Contacts: Graham’s Port Lodge, Rua do Agro nº 141, 4400-281 Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
Email: grahams@grahamsportlodge.com
Phone: +351 223 776 484 / 485