Story and photos by Lance Berelowitz
Portugal has long lived in the shadow of its much larger neighbor, Spain, particularly when it came to wine. No longer. Surrounded by Spain on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other, Portugal is a compact yet surprisingly diverse land, with multiple established wine regions. A recent road trip through the country revealed a wine renaissance in the making.
We began our trip in Lisbon. The buzzing capital offers a great introduction to Portugal’s diverse vinous offerings, with numerous wine bars, wine stores, and wine-focused restaurants. At wine bar Maria Palato, owners Sofia and Rui offered a warm welcome to this neophyte Portuguese wine explorer. I also returned for a tasting of famed Douro producer Quinta do Noval, whose wine ambassador poured their Colheita 2012 Tawny Port from a rare and impressive 6 litre-sized bottle (known as a Methuselah). The wine was impressive too!
Another excellent spot for the wine-curious in Lisbon is Nova Wine Bar, where the gregarious owner, Pedro Caixado, suggested interesting Portuguese wines to pair with each of his modern tapas dishes. My advice: take his advice. A great food and wine experience, not to be missed.
On our way up the coast, we stopped for lunch at Marea, a family-run restaurant just inland from Praia do Guincho beach. Owner-chef Hugo Murcho serves the freshest seafood and shellfish. His wine list is short but well-curated. We had a perfectly grilled whole John Dory washed down with a delicious bottle of Quinta Nova Grainha Reserva 2023, a beautifully textured white blend from high-altitude Douro vineyards.
Porto sits astride the Douro River just before it debouches into the Atlantic. Porto, or more accurately Vila Nova de Gaia on the opposite bank of the river, is the traditional capital of Port, the magnificent fortified wine that is responsible for making Douro DOC the world’s oldest denominated wine region. It is here in Gaia – as the locals call it – that you’ll find all the famous Port lodges (Sandeman, Taylor’s, Churchill’s, and Symington’s umbrella of Graham’s, Dow’s, Cockburn’s, Warre’s). The wine cellars rise up from the river in serried rows, their whitewashed stone walls hiding endless barrels of both Port and Douro table wines, which now account for half the region’s total production.
We had a private visit scheduled at Niepoort Cellars. Marcella Leble, Niepoort’s charming Tourism Coordinator, welcomed us and showed us around the darkened cellars. Then fifth-generation owner, Dirk Niepoort himself, appeared and spent the next three hours with us, sharing wine stories, wines, and even lunch. Our visit was one of the most memorable wine experiences I have ever had. Dirk’s wines were a revelation of the diversity and quality of wines emerging from the Douro. Standouts included his iconic Coche white, the appropriately named Charme red, and the outstanding Vinha do Carril red field blend from a 100-year-old vineyard in the heart of the Douro.
While in Porto, don’t miss a pit stop at The Wine Box, a wine bar/restaurant that offers a wide range of Portuguese wines both by the glass and bottle, to accompany its traditional local dishes. It was here that the manager generously offered me a thimbleful of the extraordinary Kopke Colheita 1937 Port, most likely the oldest wine I have ever tasted!
From Porto, it’s a two-hour drive upriver into the heart of the spectacular Douro Valley around the riverside town of Pinhão. A few kilometers up the Rio Pinhão, a tributary of the Douro, brought us to the village of Vale de Mendiz, where Wine & Soul is located. This relatively new winery is owned by Sandra Tavares and Jorge Serodio, who represent the new generation of Douro winemakers. They make a broad range of Douro table wines and Port. While their white field blend Guru is terrific, don’t miss the flagship red Quinta da Manoella Vinha Alecrim; an elegant wine that comes from a pre-phylloxera centenary vineyard.
Next stop was Quinta das Carvalhas, one of the most emblematic wine estates in the Douro. It occupies a prominent position on the left bank of the Douro River, directly opposite Pinhão. Here we met up with Alvaro Martinho, the estate’s enthusiastic viticultural manager. We hopped into Alvaro’s Jeep and he drove us up into the steeply terraced vineyards above the winery, where we spent two hours getting an animated lesson in the complex geology, flora, and fauna of this storied vineyard. An unforgettable experience.
Our overnight stay at Quinta de Ventozelo was magical. Located upriver from Pinhão, Ventozelo is both a working wine farm and an elegant country hotel in a serene setting overlooking the Douro River, with a terrific restaurant that prioritizes local ingredients produced on the farm and in the region. Our delicious dinner was accompanied by a bottle of Quinta de Ventozelo Loci 2020, a red blend of five native varieties. We finished with a glass of sister winery Dalva 20 Years Old Dry White Port, an astonishing dessert wine with a deep amber colour and aromas of exotic resins, marmalade, honey, almond, orange peel, and spices. The perfect end to our stay in the Douro.
From the Douro in the north, to Lisbon and Setubal in the centre, to the Alentejo and Algarve regions in the south, our road trip through Portugal revealed one amazing wine region after another, each with its own specialities. While space does not permit me to describe all the regions we visited, I can confirm that Portugal’s wine renaissance is well underway.
