Petes-Pix: Portugal's River Of Gold – Lisbon>Porto – Viking Osfrid

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A I Perold's
A Treatise
on Viticulture
A I Perold (1880-1941) was South Africa's first Professor of Viticulture and Oenology. He dedicated himself to improving the quality of grapes for wine, brandy and the table. He studied wine and brandy production in Europe, imported more than 60 varieties to the Cape and bred new ones. Perold said this book “is intended to serve both the student and the practical grape-grower. There are in it technical passages that will appeal more to the student, e.g. the chapters dealing with the biology of the vine, its external and internal morphology, the theory of grafting. My remarks on the practice of viticulture, such as those dealing with the propagation, manuring and pruning of the vine, the production of table grapes for export, will, it is hoped, assist the practical grape-grower as well as the student.” This is a newly typeset reprint, not a photocopy. Text on the 712 pages have been aligned to match the original pagination so any external references to pages in the Treatise will be valid in this edition
Available in paperback and hardback editions. 712 pages

A Year in Paarl
with
A I Perold

Dr Perolds report on his Paarl experiments 1915 - 1916 reprinted with glossary, introduction and brief biography. Fascinating historical document on viticulture for wine and table grapes, wine and brandy making.

25 November 2025

Portugal's River Of Gold – Lisbon>Porto – Viking Osfrid – 25 November 2025

Day 9 – Tuesday 25 November 2025

– Cruise Day 7

Our last full day was moored in Porto, or to be correct, on the opposite bank at Villa Nova de Gaia. There was an include excursion Porto on Foot leaving at 08:30 which we missed preferring a leisurely breakfast.

In the afternoon at 15:20 was an optional excursion to Port Wine Cellars. The time scheduled for this was 1h25min including walking to and from the cellars where 3 Ports – white, ruby & tawny – would be tasted. The cost was £83 per person (about €95). The cellar name was not on any documentation but it was Ferreira which could be seen close by the boat.

This excursion seemed a trifle expensive to me. There are a great number of Port Lodges nearby the boat, and we walked two minutes to Sandeman where we booked the superior 1790 tour which was lead by James, a young Canadian who’d worked in Ontario wineries and moved the Portugal to be with his girlfriend.

After an informative history of Sandeman, including some early TV adverts, the 7 people on the tour walked through the cellars. All our many questions were masterfully answered. Then instead of the public tasting room, we went into the private 1790 room where an illuminated opaque strip in the middle of the table enabled us to judge the wine’s colour by holding our glasses before it.

We tasted five wines, Apitive Reserve white, ruby Founder’s Reserve, 7 year old tawny Imperial Reserve , LBV (Late Bottled Vintage 2020) and a 20 year old Tawny Port which were explained and in turn we were asked our favourite. Mine was Imperial Reserve, a seven year old Tawny.

The 1790 tour lasted more than two hours and cost €32 each, thus for two of us it cost less than one person on Viking’s optional excursion and we tasted more wines

We asked for our usual pre-dinner glass of Champagne but they’d run out and offered us a Prosecco which we declined. Then the barman had a bright idea, popped across to the boat rafted to us and came back with two bottles of Champagne. No-one talks about the benefits of rafting, but that’s one!