1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

Some PinliSo Qumias—An TJpper Douro Village. 59-

dance. The choicest oftawny Port, which has lost all its fmiti- ness during a quarter of a century in the cask,is at your service,, with Bordeaux and AUsopp and Martell; while almost every one,on the pretence that the water hereabouts is undrinkahle, has an ample supply of Apollinaris up from Oporto; so that, on the whole, what is called "roughing it" in an Upper Douro quinta is rather a syharitical affair than othei'wise. In accordance with the customary practice the representative of Messrs. Martinez, Gassiot, and Co. rode forth daily from the Quinta Amarella to see that the wine was being properly made in the various vineyards,the pi'oduce of which the firm had con tracted to purchase, and here he received levees of farmers, who came from far and near with samples of new-made wine which theyhad to sell. Down below in the village,and within ahundred yards of the Douro,Martinez, Gassiot, and Go. have some large stores wherethey collect their purchasesin the Upper Douro,and whencethey send them down the river by boat to Oporto as occa sion mayrequire. Wepaid a visittothese stores,enteringthrough alarge doorway which gave access to a spacious com-tyard with a row of adegas on one side, while the other was occupied with a long low open buildmg, the sloping roof of which rested on massive granite piUars. Here a small cooperage for the repair of casks is installed. The three adegas opposite are of con siderable size, and as many as 1,200 pipes of wine can be conveniently stored in them. The village of Pinhao comprises a cluster of small houses, and some half-a-dozen wine-stores, grouped indiscriminately on the banksof theDouro. It boasts a straggling undulating pra9a, planted with a few trees, on one of which there was usually hanging a newly-slaughtered sheep, which the butcher would be cutting up,while women waited to secure the primer parts for their husbands at work on the railway in course of construction. onthe opposite bank of the Douro,and on the railway bridge that spansthe river Pinhao. A venda,abarber's shop,and one or two general dealers' stores look on to the pi-aca, and in the short, wiading streets of the village, children, pigs, dogs, and poultry