波尔图，葡萄牙 Porto, Portugal (© Kanuman/Shutterstock)

波尔图，葡萄牙 Porto, Portugal (© Kanuman/Shutterstock)

An important port of Portugal

Welcome to Porto, the second city of Portugal. Known on some English-language maps as Oporto (the Portuguese call it 'o Porto' in conversation, meaning simply 'the Port'), this attractive, ancient city is most famous today not for the port itself but for what's shipped out of it.

Follow this river, the Douro, east out of the city and you'll soon enter a valley flanked by vineyard-covered embankments. This long, narrow wine country is where world-renowned port wine is produced: A smooth, typically red wine fortified with a grape brandy to halt fermentation, resulting in a sweeter beverage. Douro valley vintners send their product downriver to Porto, from which it ships off to dessert tables worldwide. To be called port, the wine must come from the Douro valley—a stipulation dating to the 1750s—making the area one of the world's oldest protected wine regions.

葡萄牙的一个重要港口

欢迎来到葡萄牙第二大城市波尔图。在一些英文地图上被称为“波尔图”（葡萄牙人在对话中称之为“波尔图”，意思简单地说就是“港口”），这座迷人的古城今天最著名的不是港口本身，而是从港口运出的东西。

沿着这条河，杜罗河，向东出城，你很快就会进入一个山谷，山谷两侧是葡萄园覆盖的堤岸。这个狭长的葡萄酒之乡出产世界闻名的波尔图葡萄酒：一种光滑的，典型的红酒，用葡萄白兰地强化以停止发酵，从而得到更甜的饮料。杜罗谷葡萄酒商把他们的产品送到下游的波尔图，从那里运到世界各地的甜点桌上。要被称为港口，葡萄酒必须来自杜罗河谷——这一规定可以追溯到1750年代，使该地区成为世界上最古老的葡萄酒保护区之一。