You should not go to Porto without also visiting the Douro Valley and its vineyards. The scenery is stunning and the wine first rate. Since we were traveling with our kids, we didn’t want to bore them with too many stops at wineries so we decided to only go to one. On the recommendation of our tour guide Igor from Porto Tours and Transfers, we chose Quinta da Pacheca.
Wine has been produced in the Douro Valley for over 2,000 years. In 1756, the Douro Valley was named the world’s first demarcated wine region. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001. Although both red and white tables wines are made here, the valley is most famous for its port, a sweet fortified red wine.
Instead of vineyards or wineries, Portugal has quintas. Family-owned farming estates, quintas can be used for any agricultural pursuit but are most well-known today for their grape farming and wine making. Quinta da Pacheca is one of the oldest estates in the region. Though wine has been produced there since 1738, it was not until 1977 that the vineyard started bottling and selling wines under its estate name.
We were originally going to take a boat ride on the Douro first and visit the vineyard after lunch, but we were all a little jet-legged and asked Igor if we could start a little later in the morning. He was very obliging but the later start meant we would miss the morning boat ride and therefore had to swap our schedule. And that meant wine tasting at 10:30am! Oh well, it was vacation after all…
The drive through the Douro Valley is typically a dramatic one, with each hilly curve in the road leading to a new stunning vista. Unfortunately, it was raining on the day we went so we got to experience the windy roads but not the scenery. We arrived at Quinta da Pacheca in the midst of a steady rainfall and headed into the building where we met the tour guide. Unfortunately, due to the weather we had to skip the tour of the grounds and headed straight to the cellar.
The cellar was one large room with barrels of various sizes. Our guide gave us a history of the Quinta, as well as an overview of the wine making process.
From there we climbed up the stairs and saw where they stomp their grapes. There were 8 large concrete vats where they press the grapes. During the September harvest season, you can add a “lagarada” onto the tour, which means you get to climb in and stomp the grapes yourself!
After we finished the tour, we headed to the tasting room. We sampled 4 wines – 2 Douro DOC and 2 Port wines. We both enjoyed the table wines but the port was too strong for my taste. Our favorite was the red and we bought a bottle of it to bring home with us, which we plan to open on our 20th anniversary later this year.
The rain had let up some at this point so we wandered around the grounds a little bit before leaving. Even in the rain we could see what a beautiful place this was. With the rows of grape vines in the foreground and the terraced hills in the background, it was truly a stunning scene. I wish we had been able to officially tour the grounds and explore a little more beyond the immediate area around the building but I was still happy that the weather cooperated enough to let us see what we did.
Quinta da Pacheca has a few other unique aspects to their winery. They have a small hotel on the grounds – and they even offer rooms in wine barrels! In addition to a traditional hotel, they have two rows of wine barrel cabins nestled among the vines. Each wine barrel containing a bedroom and bathroom, as well as an outdoor seating area overlooking the vineyard. I would love to return during harvest season one year to stomp grapes and sleep in a wine barrel.
The quinta also has some unique artwork installed throughout the grounds. From wood carvings to statues made out of cork, we enjoyed the special touches that the artwork brought to the winery.
Overall, we had a great morning at Quinta da Pacheca. Wineries of course aren’t geared towards kids but they still seemed to enjoy the tour and walking around the grounds. (Bumping into the resident vineyard dogs certainly didn’t hurt!) It would have been more interesting for them if the weather had been better and we had gotten the full tour outdoors, but all in all it was an interesting and fun stop despite the weather.
