Wineries / FOod in the Douro Valley

Wineries:
Thoughts what are MUST VISITS in the Douro Valley?

I’ve got 1 day and would like to visit 2-3 if possible… (it’s a rather long drive into the valley )

Vallado
Tedo
Niepoort
Crasto
Nova

Any others? How would you rank in order of preference?

Food:
What are good spots for lunch in between a visit? Nothing too long/fancy, with 2 kids traveling along.

Many thanks!

Quinta Nova has a nice restaurant.
With the Douro you should be happy just to find food, let alone have choices.
Seriously though, many parts of the Douro are very remote and the time to get between places is longer that you might think. Bridges aren’t always were you would hope they would be and you need to sometimes drive opposite the way you want to go, just to cross the river.

I do have one other suggestion for food. In Pinhao, which is the closest town to Quinta Nova there is a butcher shop, the only butcher shop in town. They will do a bag lunch of smoked/prepared meats that are awesome. He also has a little fryer under the counter and he’ll cook up some fresh bacon for you. If you are real nice, he’ll even give you a cup of his own “hooch”. Not sure what it was. He called it “tea”, but it was more like a homemade white cider. One of our food highlights of the trip.

This is Quinta Nova. It will give you a feel for how remote parts of the valley are.

Quinta Nova and Crasto are about a 40 minute drive from Pinhao. Just to give you an idea of distance. There is no easy way of getting around and what looks close can easily be an hour drive. I would skip if you have limited time.

Since you have limited time, stay on the south side of the Douro (the main road between Regua and Pinhao) and you could visit 3, maybe 4, if you hustle. Tedo is worth it, so is Sandeman’s Seixo, Fonseca’s Panascal, Niepoort (invite only IIRC). In Pinhao you can walk to Dow’s Bomfim and next door is Croft Roeda. Plenty of places to eat but if you want the best place for lunch or dinner, go to DOC. About 1/2 way between Regua and Pinhao. Expect it to be at least an hour and half. Make a reservation ahead of time.

The new road has made getting into the Douro much faster. Getting around once there is another matter. I will reiterate…there is no such thing as a quick drive in the Douro.

Do whatever you have to do to secure a tasting at Niepoort.

I emailed them. What other ways are there for someone who’s not “someone” ?

Find someone who is “someone,” and ask if you can drop their name. Perhaps figure out who distributes them and go from there. Do any of your local wine stores carry their wines? If “yes,” maybe there’s a connection there …

I got in either because (1) I simply emailed them, or (2) because I know “someone.” Honestly, I don’t know which of those two secured my appointment; let’s hope it was number 1. One thing is for sure, however, I most definitely am not “someone.”

Keeping your fingers crossed, hope for the best and plan for the worst…

That said, visiting Niepoort is like visiting no other producer in the Douro. You never know what one will get. If they invite you up, your experience will depend on who’s there, what they are there for, what’s on the agenda already, and what mood whoever is there is in. I’ve had horrible visits there where we were largely ignored, Dirk only talked to some others who were there (turned out to be some bankers he wanted to get a loan from), poured their cheapest wine, and I almost walked out. It was so bad, our fearless group leader chewed some folks out as we left and some people in our group said they’d never buy a Niepoort product again. Later during dinner at a nearby restaurant, their winemaker at the time literally left the harvest, which was in full swing, and went to our restaurant with some old wines to try and make amends. That said, I’ve had fantastic visits that were just incredible. It’s Niepoort, Dirk and his crew beat to their own drum and operate on their own time schedule.

Quinta do Portal have a good restaurant, so you combine a tasting there with a meal. You will need to check on opening times. They also have accommodation, but again I am not sure exactly how that works.

I say “good” because it is now 5 years since I was there. But at the time my meal was a lot more than simply good - it was IMO fantastic - one of the best of the trip, and I ate in places a lot better known for food. According to the website the same chef is in charge, so that sounds promising.

Mark–we’re doing the same thing in about a month–a quick hit at the end of a Spain and Portugal trip. We’re just going overnight and out the next day. Staying at Nova, partly on Michael’s recommendation. Because of the difficulty getting around and crossing the river I suspect we’ll mostly stay on the north side of the river and poke around Nova and the vineyards, maybe visit Crasto, which looks “close”, and perhaps Pinhao or other spots on the way in. (BTW, how are the wines at Nova? Does Crasto require an appointment?)

Quinta Nova’s property is beautiful.

There is a train station near the river where you can catch the train to Pinhao

where there is a little more to do, but it still is a very small town. The folks at Nova will shuttle you to the station or it is a nice walk to the river.
The restaurant at Nova

is excellent.
The wines are typical of the Douro, dense/tannic and could use some cellaring. Like drinking a young cab or Bordeaux.

Crasto is next door to Nova. A very long hilly walk, which in the summer you won’t want to do, or I’m sure you could get Crasto to pick you up or Nova to take you over or vice versa. Crasto does require an appointment. Worth going for sure and if you do make sure you go hang out by the pool if you can, best pool view in the Douro

The dry wines at Nova are excellent and their Ports are good and steadily improving every year. It’s a beautiful property to stay at, I have 3 times and visited 4 times. Nova has some really good walking trails, a nice pool to hang out at, and a really good restaurant on property

Let me give a word of warning related to the train platform (called “Ferrao”) that serves Nova and Crasto. It is not a full-time platform. If you take the express train it will not stop there. The regular train will stop ONLY if you tell the conductor you’re getting off there so he/she can tell the train driver to stop. If you’re getting on, just wave down the train as it approaches the platform. Make sure you get the right train schedule. The plus side is the newer train cars now have air conditioning…the old ones had cool windows you could put down and hang your head out to look at the views better. The new ones don’t which sucks, but the a/c is SO nice in the warmer months. Did I mention the Douro is still a semi-remote place, LOL!

Quinta do Portal’s chef, Milton Ferreira, started there when he was around 15-16 years old. He’s in his early 20’s now IIRC. He’s an amazingly good chef. Portal is a bit of drive from Pinhao but they make some outstanding wines and Ports and their restaurant there is pretty killer. If you have time worth it.

One other place if you want a really scenic relaxing lunch, is the picnic lunch at Quinta do Bomfim. They take you to a private building on the Quinta, give you a nice picnic lunch, a bottle of wine, and what not. We bought an extra bottle of old Port at the shop there and took that to enjoy as well. Visit Us · Symington Family Estates

One thing people tend to overlook is the weather there in the middle of summer. Be advised the Douro gets really hot, as in 40+ Celsius, in the hot summer months. It’s not uncommon to hit 45 in some parts. That’s around 103-114 Fahrenheit. If you live in a cold climate or don’t like it that hot, you may not be happy to be there July through mid Sept.

Our friends are in the Douro right now, looking at their Facebook pictures, I never knew how beautiful that wine region is!

Wait till you see it in person! It’s breathtaking.

Years ago I took Steve’s advice on this. The wines are “good,” but the restaurant was excellent. I’d highly recommend, assuming you’re there for lunch, too.

Ok getting things pared down based on availability etc…

given these two options which would you take (basically would you trade off a visit to Q.Crasto for Q.Tedo + Q. Sandeman or Panascal…

8:30am - 10:30am: Drive into Duoro Valley.
10:30 - noon: Quinto do Tedo
Noon - 1:30pm: Tasting @ Bomfim
1:30 - 3pm: Picnic @ Bomfim
3 - 4pm: Tasting @ Panascal or Sandeman
4 - 4:45pm: Drive to Quinto do Nova
4:45 - 6pm: Tasting @ Quinto do Nova
6 - 8pm Drive back to Porto

OR

8:30am - 10:30am: Drive into Duoro Valley.
10:30 - noon: Quinto do Crasto
Noon - 1pm: Drive to Bomfim
1 - 2:30pm: Picnic @ Bomfim
2:30 - 4pm: Tasting @ Bomfim
4 - 4:45pm: Drive to Quinto do Nova
4:45 - 6pm: Tasting @ Quinto do Nova
6 - 8pm Drive back to Porto

I was so jealous when Scott told me they were going, we had hoped to go this year but it is going to get pushed back to 2018 most likely.

Your driving times for option #1 are off. From Sandeman or Panascal to Nova you’re looking at around an hour at the very min. Also, this is the Douro. There is what we call “Douro time”. That is everything will start a tad late and everything will take you an hour or so longer than expected. Trust me on that, you need to build some flex time into the itinerary. I will say it again because people tend to shrug this part off and then they find out the hard way; everything will take longer than you think. I go every year at least once, sometimes twice, you need to build some extra time into your plans. Never once has anything started or ended on time.

If it were me, having only one day there. I’d spend it on the south side and around Pinhao as I mentioned. Skip Crasto and Nova and stay around Pinhao and the Quinta’s off the main road (the N222) between it and Regua. While both are awesome places, the drive there and back to both eat up an enormous amount of time. As much as I go there, planning these two visits are always the most challenging as even when planning only one other visit before or after becomes a nightmare due to travel time issues.

You could drive up, do Tedo, then Sandeman, then Bomfim (with lunch there), then walk across the bridge to Carvalhas (and the ride to the top of the Quinta is worth every minute of it), then hit Portal for dinner, then head back to Porto.

With the new bridge/road the drive from Porto to Regua is now about 1 1/2 hour max. It would be a tad longer if you went to Portal from Pinhao, then connect to the road (A4) through Sabrosa and back to Porto.