Pinhão: The Heart of Douro Valley

On my trip with Turismo de Portugal, I had the opportunity to visit the town of Pinhão in the heart of the beautiful Douro Valley. The Douro Valley is the oldest demarcated wine region in the world and has a microclimate perfect for growing grapes for the famous Port wine. Terraced vineyards practically climb straight up the vertical slopes stretching up from the river.

Our group cruised the river on a rabelo boat, a typical wooden Portuguese vessel made for the transport of wine casks, past many of the quintas (wine estates). The river was smooth as glass and it was practically silent, expect for the whistle of the train as it snaked along the narrow gauge railway on the cliff’s edge.

A visit to the CS Vintage House, a former 18th century wine estate, for a lunch on the terrace overlooking the river followed our cruise. We leisurely lunched on smoked ham carpaccio with melon and rosemary accompanied by a 2010 Floral da Vila Douro white wine, veal medallions with chestnuts and potato gratin accompanied by a 2010 Solar de Rede Douro red wine, and fresh berries over vanilla ice cream accompanied by port, of course!

If I hadn’t been so stuffed from lunch, I would have loved to indulge in the port and chocolate gourmet tasting in CS Vintage House’s Wine Academy. Chocolates handmade by the hotel’s in-house pastry chef accompany a white port, a 10 year old tawny port, a 40 year old tawny port, and a late bottled vintage port.

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