The Top 4 Reasons You Should Drink Douro River Valley Wine

1. Harvest By Hand and Crushed By Foot
Portuguese wines are known for value. A good bottle starts at $10-$15. What isn't known is that the Douro River Valley is the most expensive wine growing region in the world.

The steep vineyards were created long before trucks and machines, so the grapes are accessible only by foot. Grape pickers must carry each box uphill to the trucks waiting above in 100 degree heat. This makes for a very labor-intensive and expensive harvesting.

Also many boutique wineries still stomp their grapes by foot. This, again, takes a lot of time and manpower. So, when you drink that $10-$15 bottle, know that it is even more valuable than you thought. This extra TLC and expensive overhead does make very special wine.

2. Port Only Comes from Douro River Valley , Portugal
The Douro River Valley is the only place in the world that can technically grow grapes for Port, kind of like how champagne only comes from France's Champagne region. Wine regions around the world rip off the name for their fortified, sweet wines, but only Port comes from Portugal , and its grapes must come from the Douro River Valley.

3. No Irrigation
To maintain the Port making tradition, the government enacted strict grape-growing standards that every cultivator must adhere to. My favorite is, "You cannot water your grape plants". What the heck? The Douro is appropriately nicknamed "hell" in the summer because of its ungodly sun and extreme heat. How does any farmer expect to produce a crop without water? I kill my tomato plants in one day if I don't water them.

But grapes from the Douro are never watered - ever. (Well, the exception is for baby vines. They can be watered until they mature.) Roots must go 4-6 feet down to find water. This puts a huge strain on the grapes which, ironically makes the wine better. The harder the vines struggle for water, the more tasty soil nutrients get deposited in the grape. No irrigation means blasts of flavor!

4. No Tacky Tourism Overhead
Wine tourism is a good thing. It stabilizes revenue for small producers -- smoothing out the financial wrinkles of slow years. And as a lover of wine, a strong tourism infrastructure provides access to great wine tasting experiences.

However, these are downsides to it as well: cheesy wine knickknack stores, grocery stores with overpriced picnic fixins', bad wine staying in the marketplace because it's subsidized by overpriced lunches served on their terrace, etc.

Also, when regions become hot tourism spots, the price of the wine goes up due to its reputation. Take Napa Valley for example. Because Napa is, I feel their wine is 25% more expensive than comparable wines in California . Great wine, but wow, they are expensive. And they can get away with it.

Douro Valley , by contrast, is much more beautiful than Napa , and it has none of the tacky, price-inflating problems that come along with other wine growing regions, hence making it a good deal and a great place to travel.