1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

74

In the Port Wine Country,

planted by an Abbot of Goivaes, althougb to-day it is more generally known as tbe Quinta da Komaneira or de Dona Clara, from tbe name ofits proprietor,Dona Clara de Lacerda. Tbe road to it bes along tbe margin of tbe Douro,over large slabs of rock washed down by a succession of winter floods, and wbicb,on tbe waters subsiding, are left bigb and dry on tbe sandy river bank,jumbled together in grotesque disorder. Over these my sorry steed picked bis way for some time cleverly enough, stepping cautiously from one slippery boulder to another, until one steep shelving rock brought him down with hisfour legs under him. Disengaging myfeet from the Moorish stuTups,I was soon out of the saddle, preferring not to run the risk of the horse falling anew in his endeavours to recover his footing. The remainder of the journey over this perilous road way was performed in safety, and passing through the monu mental gateway of the quinta, and ascending the steep road cut through the vines and shaded by spreading olive-trees, we reached the open terrace on which the long adega,faced by a row of tapering cypresses,interspersed with orange-trees and acacias, stands. Turning sharply round to the right, and passing through a large iron gateway surmounted by an escutcheon, we find ourselves in a spacious courtyard. At right angles with the casa dos lagares stands the little house where Dona Clara and her daughter instal themselves during the vintage. In front are some stables, and facing the press-house is another range of outbuildings, surmounted by a quaint little beU-turret, dominated by the painted figure of some patron saint. Fowls are wandering about the courtyard, dogs are sleeping in the shade, and a boy is thrusting tufts of maize down the throats of a couple of bullocks yoked to a cart laden with a pipe of brandy. The vintage had commenced in this quiuta on the 25th of September,and was now drawing to a close, nearly the whole of the wine having been drawn off into the tonels,ten of which,capable of holding from fifteen to thirty pipes each, are ranged along the spacious adega. Here, as in ■adjoining quintas, phylloxera had manifested itself; still its