After leaving Porto, our journey continued about an hour and a half East to the Douro Valley wine region. The Douro River goes all the way from central Spain to Porto. The waterway served as the original mode of transportation for wine barrels to be stored near the city of Porto, and to get to sea. Douro Valley, specifically, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
WHAT TO DO:
Visit the wineries, taste the olive oil, see the historic town and Roman ruins, hit the water for rafting, kayaking and boat tours. If you want more adventure, try canyoning or mountain biking. If you are a foodie, visit the DOC restaurant by a Michelin starred chef. There’s plenty to do, or choose to get some r&r in beautiful surroundings.
We arrived in the Douro Valley on Steve’s birthday, and pre-selected a winery to do a tasting at that day. We decided to skip all the big name Port brands and go with a smaller, family-owned, certified organic wine estate, Quinta Do Tedo. They are located at the confluence of the Douro River and Tedo River, and they make port and red wine, plus olive oil. I ‘m glad I made a reservation in advance, because a big group was leaving as we entered. Our tour ended up just being the two of us. The guide was very informative; we learned more than I can remember now!
While I know a decent amount about Scotch whisky production and classification, I know very little about wine, let alone port specifically. Time to taste and learn! For starters, this estate has ‘single quinta classification’, and uses 100% estate grown organic grapes on class ‘A’ vineyards. This means the product is sourced with and produced on one estate. Only 2% of vineyards in Douro Valley receive the ‘A’ rating, making this a coveted classification.
Beyond these basic classifications, there’s vintage, late bottled vintage, tawny, ruby, and even rosé varieties. I won’t bore you with the details, you should just go visit yourself to learn more!
Something I had never heard before: Port can be made anywhere, but Porto must be from the Douro Valley in Portugal. If you want authentic Port wine, make sure the label indicates it is ‘Porto’. Also, some types of Port can be stored opened for quite some time; our tour guide explained that the Portuguese drink Porto for special occasions, perhaps opening for Christmas and finishing the bottle around Easter. I’m sure part of that is personal taste preference, but if you can make it last longer to savor it, I say go for it! Keep in mind that port wine has a higher ABV than regular wine; sip responsibly!
Anyway, enough education. To sum it up, the tour was very informative, the wine was great, the olive oil was fresh and the cheese plate with the tasting was delicious. It was an excellent way to kick off our stay in the Douro Valley.
WHERE TO STAY:
I use Hotels.com for work travel (that link gets you 2 bonus night toward your first reward night!), which gives you a free hotel night after you book 10 stays through their site. I had a reward just burning a hole in my pocket, which led me to search for options in the Douro Valley. Surprisingly, I saw few options. I’m not sure if local hotels don’t participate in the website, or if there really aren’t many lodging choices. Either way, that is where I found Six Senses. After checking out their website, I had a hard time looking elsewhere. It looked amazing, and it really exceeded our expectations in person. I think it was also discounted for the off-season, which really helped.
Apparently, they have a hotel dog. I am very sad to say we did not meet her. Besides that, everything was fantastic. The hotel is set on a large plot of land with hiking trails, atop a hill overlooking the river. The weather was overcast and cool, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the fresh air. I can imagine the outdoor pool is the place to be in warmer months!
The indoor pool hit the spot during our visit, as did the saunas and steam rooms. The hotel provided a day-by-day schedule with the offerings like fitness classes/group runs, wine tastings, garden tours, pickling and tonic classes, and DIY body scrub classes. The spa looked very inviting, too!
The breakfast buffet was insane. Maybe it’s a good thing we did not go in warmer months because it would not pair well with summer beach bods.. Another dangerously amazing feature was the wine vending machine. Slip in your room key, select one of three wine pour sizes, and voila, a self serve station! We had a little pre-dinner sample and a post-dinner fireplace nightcap, all with a little swipe of the key.
TIPS:
To get to the Douro Valley, we chose to drive. There was essentially no traffic, and the directions were very simple. Gas and tolls were costly, so keep that in mind when weighing options for transportation.
The weather in November for the Douro Valley (town is called Lamego for forecasts) is an average high of 57° and low of 43°, and 10 days of rain. When we visited, it spritzed a little on and off, but we also enjoyed some spurts of sunshine.
See you next year, friends! To see the rest of my Portugal posts, check out my recap of Porto here, Lisbon here and here, the Algarve, Sintra, and Évora.
