1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

Somefamotis Qidntas on the Douro and the Rio Torto. 73

coursing among the trees and rocks along the bottom of the valley, the precise counterpart of a Welsh mountain stream. Perched on the high ground are the white cottages of three little villages in the midst of garden patches—^Povoa,girt round about with olive-trees; Cottas, fiunged with vines; and Villa- rinho de Cottas,through which we have to pass on our way to the Dom'o. We wind round the hills encompassing the valley and fonning a complete amphitheatre of vine-clad slopes, while beyoncl, bathed in a flood of sunlight, ghmmer the distant movmtain-tops. All the wine grown low down in these hoUowe is remarkable,it should he noted,for its depth of colour. After a time we commence our descent, and a bend of the road discloses to view the yellow Douro,flowing tumultuously at our feet. Beaching its margin we cross the Povoa, which literally dribbles into the larger stream, and flnd ourselves within the limits of the famous Costa do Eoncao, so named from the murmuring sound produced by the waters of the Dotu'o dashing against a rock which here obstructs its course, and where some of the choicest wine in the Alto Douro region is vintaged. Here are the Quinta do Eoncao,belonging to Senhor Souza, our host at Celleirds,with its long adega,flanked on the one side by a cypress-tree, and on the other by a lofty cedar; the Quinta de Dona Eosa, planted more than a century ago, and yielding a remarkably fine wine,of which as many as 150 pipesare produced in a, first-rate year; also the Quinta do Jordao, or Sibio, as it is sometimes called, with its large white casa and adjacent chapel, producing some 35 pipes of wine of the highest quality. The wine here is purchased by Messrs. Silva and Cosens, who also buy upthe produce of the largest of the Eomaneira quintas,. of which there appear to be two. The quinta to which Baron Forrester gives the name of Eomaneira in his map of the Alto Douro wine district usually yields some 70 pipes of wine,re markable alike for body, mellowness, and aroma. The other, which ordinarily produces ICQ to 120 pipes of first-class wine,is. called the Quinta dos Eeis by Baron Forrester, and by others the Quinta do Abbade,itbeing conjectured that it was originally