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Just back from an amazing vino visit to The Douro, which combined top wines, engaging producers, home cooking, fine dining, stylish hotels, bumpy roads and outstanding views. I will write up the star wines from this week in due course, however one of the key conclusions from my visit is the feeling that Porto and the Douro are on the periphery of The English Tourist’s short break travel map. In the north of Portugal, Douro is reached by flying to Porto, hiring a car with sat nav and taking a drive for three hours to reach the region and its famous river.
This week I stayed at the outstanding Vintage House Hotel in Pinhao, where you can take in the breathtaking views whilst having your All Bran. We also had dinner at the wine hotel, Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo and this is certainly a place I’ll visit again.
Remember from a grape perspective the Douro area is not simply the presentation of Port – a fortified wine produced for over 300 years in the region – and the signs you see for the famous houses like Sandeman, Taylors, Warres etc but there is the contemporary story over the last thirty years of the development and production of complex, quality reds and stylish whites. So include in your itinerary of wine tourism some of the still wine producers, for example, Quinta do Seixa, Quinta do Portal, Quintas dos Avidagos, Quinta do Vale Dona Maria and Quinta do Foz.
For the weekend here are a couple of wines to get you in the travel mood.
Planalto White Reserva 2009, Douro, Portugal, £6.87 buy any two Portuguese wines and Save 20% = £5.49, Majestic. This unoaked white made from indigeous grapes varieties proves what the Douro can achieve in terms of producing a dry, classy, rounded, applely and minerally flavoured aperitif wine.
Quintas de Avidagos 2008, Douro, Portugal, £8.99. Castas have the 2007 available, which was a star vintage in the Douro for reds. Soft, attractive plummy and raspberry fruit, medium bodied, balanced tannins and an ideal match with lamb.