You may not realize it yet, but you love this wine!  The U.S. is the #1 export market, by a wide margin, for the wine region Rias Baixas which is located in the far northwest of Spain by the ocean.  Rias Baixas means the “lower estuaries” because it is marked by inlets of water that extend miles from the Atlantic.  Rias Baixas is the only exclusively white wine Denominacion de Origen (regulated quality appelation) in Spain and is dominated by the white grape Albarino.  Albarino grapes produce light-bodied, crisp and faintly …

Visiting Porto, Portugal, is a reminder of Portugal’s historic importance as a world trading centre for over two thousand years and its dominance in the 16th century.  The historic district is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  As a wine lover, Porto is the home of the one and only Port wine, Vila Nova de Gaia across the Douro River being the district where all the major Port houses cellar and age their wines.  I have stayed at the Grande Hotel in the shopping district (about a mile north from the bridge), but if you are visiting Porto to …