Neve’s Portuguese Food Trails final programme returns to Porto

Neven Maguire returns to Porto, Óbidos and Madeira in his new seven-part popular series Food Trails following his enjoyable visit to Portugal in 2022.

This year, his travels take him from Porto in the North of Portugal to the Atlantic island of Madeira. Throughout the series, Neven meets some of Portugal's most renowned chefs and unique artisan food and drink producers. 

In this final episode of Neven's Portuguese Food Trails, series two, Neven returns to the northern city of Porto, famous for the port wine produced there for centuries. 

The Douro River divides the city, giving its name to the Douro Valley, Portugal's best-known wine region and the oldest demarcated wine region in the world.

Last year, Neven visited Graham's Wine Lodge to tour the cellars and learn about their traditional port wines. This year, he takes a boat trip on the Douro and tastes their table wines, produced within the Douro Valley and gaining in popularity. 

Neven also samples one of Graham's recently launched products, White Port Blend No.5, aimed at a new generation of port drinkers designed especially for mixing.

Neven's next stop is Óbidos, one of Portugal's best-known and best-preserved mediaeval walled towns. Óbidos is famous for ginjinha, and Neven tastes this type of cherry liqueur made from locally grown cherries infused in 100% alcohol and sold by street vendors in dark chocolate cups.

Pictured: Neven with Carla Basilio of Engenhos do Norte in the Neven's Portuguese Food Trails, final episode, February 28

Returning to Madeira, Neven visits Fajã dos Padres, a tropical fruit farm growing mango, papaya, pineapple, Surinam cherries, passion fruit, figs, grapes, avocados and bananas. 

It can only be reached by boat, or cable car as Fajã dos Padres is in a remote cove on the south coast of Madeira at the bottom of a very steep cliff. The base of the cliff traps the heat, creating a unique microclimate that is 4 to 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the island.

Neven then travels to the northeastern coast of Madeira and the village of Porto Da Cruz, home to the last steam-powered sugar cane mill in Europe, Engenhos Do Norte. The sugar cane now grown in Madeira is used exclusively to make rum and treacle from fresh sugar cane juice. He tastes several types of rum, finishing with a 56.2% alcohol rum aged in Madeira wine barrels to produce a darker colour and a strong Madeira wine flavour. 

This week, Neven's recipe is a Passion Fruit and Key Lime Pie. All of Neven's recipes in this new series were filmed on the spectacular island of Madeira at the Quinta Das Vinhas estate and vineyard, which has been owned by the same family since 1685.