Why you Should Plan a Wine Trip Through the Douro Valley

The Douro is known for hosting the famous Douro wines, popular green wines, and fun sparkling wines that gain strength in an already consolidated trend! The Douro will bewitch you with its unforgettable wine, its delicious traditional cuisine, breathtaking viewpoints. The man was inspired to create it, and today, it is one of the greatest wonders of Nature, currently a UNESCO heritage site.

The Douro promises to be one of the most unforgettable trips that you will be able to enjoy, and therefore become one of the destinations not to be missed. Get ready to walk through spectacular multicolored terraces of vineyards that give life to one of the most special, enduring, and delicate wines in the world. Delight yourself with the slopes of this Iberian river that tastes like wine and discover some of the reasons to book a trip to the Douro!

The Douro, Scene of Vertical Viticulture

When the Marquês of Pombal, legendary Portuguese Prime Minister, created in 1971 the first regulation for a delimited area in the world, introducing the concept of appellation of origin that we know today, the Douro was already what it is today. There was hard work of extreme viticulture. And there was talent. The two ingredients that place it in the most relevant wine universe.

Enjoying one of the greatest wonders in the world, which at the same time is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, may seem like something that only happens in a dream, but in the Douro anything is possible. From the wonderful Quinta de Ventozelo and the wonderful views, where you can sit in the front row marveling at this wonder of Nature, drinking wine from the region, and tasting a regional olive oil. At night, there are many places to enjoy, see here the ideal tour, the tour that will take your words, bucket-list-worthy.

Along the Course of the Douro River

The sound of the train entering the station returns us to the road and takes us to the banks of that river of wine. The vineyard crowds its slopes, forming a Tetris of colors, row after row crisscrossing the steep slopes in a perfect embroidery of dreamy autumn. Reds, greens, yellows, browns, the biodiversity of Douro's varietal garden offer us an infinite play of nuances while the combination of flora, with olive, orange, and pine trees, marks the limits of farms with a vocation for self-sufficiency.

Drilling the hills in sinuous curves, the leisurely flow of the great flow, traversed by small rabelos, those that once crossed downstream with Port wine barrels to be stored at its mouth. Breaking the profile, metal bridges that connect unconnected territories, history of isolation, hard lives of austere people who for centuries saved the slope in arduous harvests. That they overcame phylloxera by replanting vine by vine, that they escaped droughts without resorting to irrigation. Sweat, tears, and time. It is the history of this land that shows us pride today.

Porto, the City where the Heart of Portuguese wine beats

A perfect moment in the ideal place. We started at Quinta do Bomfim, belonging to the Symington Family States, it has the Graham's and Cockburn's brands, red wines like those from Quinta do Vesúvio, and one of the restaurants that hover over the most special vineyard of the entire route. Get ready for an unforgettable lunch at Casa dos Ecos, signed by the incredible chef Pedro Lemos. But before this traditional lunch of products with panoramic views, a tour of its cellars, now replaced by stainless steel and mechanized treading, and its aging sheds. It smells of grapes and brandy and its ruby ​​oxidizes slowly in its gigantic oak vats or its tawny is aged in barrels.

Close to Quinta da Roêda, one of the privileged farms of the Croft brand, it opens its doors to visit the vineyard. They successfully allowed different spaces between the vineyards to strategically place picnic tables. There's no better place to open the basket and taste some cured sheep's cheeses from Serra da Estrela, its green, ripe, and cordovil virgin olive oil, and some dried figs while enjoying one of the wines of this house founded in 1588. Before, a Porto Tonic with lots of ice or a Croft Pink, the first rosé port.

Highway 222, considered one of the most fascinating in the world, brings us closer to Peso Da Régua, where they await us at Quinta da Pacheca. A boutique hotel is hidden among the vineyard, with some of its rooms made from a large wine vat. It is perhaps one of the most wine tourism estates in the area and they have designed a whole program of activities that includes the blending and bottling of your wine. Other than all the incredible tasting, hotel, and dining experiences, Quinta da Pacheca has a new space dedicated to art where you can paint with wine, a one-of-a-kind experience.

Vinho Verde, the Wines that Taste of Success

They are the most international wines in Portugal. They are consumed by millions in all corners of the planet! But the wine region, located between the Douro and Minho rivers, is much more than that popular brand. The high-altitude vineyards, with their characteristic trellises, reveal to us that we have reached this appellation famous for its fresh whites with added carbon dioxide. But that is just the showcase for a much more complex, intense, and structured background. Without a doubt, its Atlantic character and the minerality of its granite soils give its Alvarinho and Loureiro vines the necessary elegance. Varietal or in the company, the light and pale rosés or the sparkling wines made under the traditional or ancestral method are presented as protagonists over their brothers.

The impressive Quinta da Aveleda opens its doors every day to visitors from all over the world. Its gardens alone are worth the walk, but the know-how of five generations of the Guedes family offer a quality wine destination. Petiscos and wines, picnic or more extensive tasting, its proximity to Penafiel or Amarante make it easy to stop. It is in that beautiful Amarante where you can have a coffee crossing the Tamega river through its medieval bridge and before finishing the tour in the unforgettable city of Porto.

Flowing into Vila Nova de Gaia 

All right reserved ©Philippe Hugonnard

There where the sea and the river mix, colorful houses, modernist buildings, melancholic trams, and, of course, wineries with British names that give shelter to Port wines are crowded, crowded. We crossed to Vila Nova de Gaia via the Dom Luís I Bridge, of course. Each house offers a different experience to approach the truth of Porto, like a kaleidoscope that rotates forming beautiful compositions, all different and all real. Didactic circuits, snacks with views, express courses, professional tastings. Very close to Taylor's and under its wing is the newly opened Wow complex. World of Wine, wine in its maximum cultural and popularizing expression, not only from this beautiful region but also as a tribute to the universal oenological world. WOW is, without a doubt, the fashion district, an intellectual and sensory barrage where the beautiful Douro River generously donates its waters to the Atlantic.

Discover our selection of the best tours in the Douro

7-Day Premium Tour in the Douro aboard a Private Yacht Cruise

Without further ado, let's start by presenting this tour, 7 days in this paradise to relax. This tour, designed for true luxury lovers, is one of the best tours I've come across. Complete, diverse, and with a cruise through the wonderful valleys of the Douro River, what more can we ask for?

5-Days Premium Tour in the Douro

This tour surprises even the most demanding wine enthusiasts. Enjoy a visit to the first producers of Port Wine bottles, a 5-day stay at a Wine Hotel in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. A private vintage boat cruise, and a guided tour of some of the most famous wineries and wine estates in the iconic region.

3-Day Tour in the Douro with a Cruise in the Douro River

This is the ultimate activity for wine enthusiasts. A 3-day stay at a Wine Hotel in the heart of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Enjoy a private sailing cruise and a guided tour of some of the most famous wineries and wine estates in the iconic region.