Alto Douro Wine Region

Overview

The Alto Douro is the wine valley that produces port, a demarcated region since a royal charter of 10 September 1756 that made it the first formally delimited wine region in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2001 for the terraced landscape its growers built. It runs along the Douro and its tributaries east of Porto, sheltered from the Atlantic by the Marão and Montemuro mountains, from Mesão Frio to the Spanish border, with the port quintas concentrated around Pinhão.

It is visited by train, by boat and by car, and the point is the landscape: schist hillsides cut into terraces from the river to the ridge, white quintas among them, and the river itself, dammed into a chain of lakes. The region now makes as much unfortified Douro wine as port, and the tastings at the quintas cover both.

History

Wine has been made here since at least the 3rd and 4th centuries, and the Cistercian monasteries of Salzedas, São João de Tarouca and São Pedro das Águias shaped it from the 12th. The vineyards expanded in the 17th century, the name port wine first appears in 1675, and the Methuen Treaty of 1703 with England and the British lodges in Porto that followed made port the region’s product; the charter of 1756 drew the boundary of the western part of the present region to regulate it.

Oidium struck in 1852 and phylloxera in 1863. Table wine was made but hardly seen outside the valley until Fernando Nicolau de Almeida of the port house Ferreira, inspired by a wartime visit to Bordeaux, made Barca Velha in 1952 from Quinta do Vale de Meão in the Douro Superior; few followed until the 1990s, after Portugal’s entry into the EEC in 1986 broke the Porto lodges’ monopoly and let the quintas bottle their own port and Douro wines. The 1970s research that identified Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca, Tinta Cão and Tinta Barroca as the prime grapes underlies the modern wines.

Visiting

The region has three parts, west to east. The Baixo Corgo around Peso da Régua is the mildest and wettest, the first planted, 14,000 hectares; the Cima Corgo around Pinhão is the largest, 19,000 hectares, and holds most of the famous quintas; the Douro Superior towards Spain is the hottest and driest, 8,700 hectares, the least accessible and still being planted. Port vines are planted on schist, table-wine vines on granite.

The classic day is the Linha do Douro train from Porto’s São Bento to Régua and on to Pinhão, hugging the river from Régua onwards, with a boat trip or a quinta visit at the far end; Pinhão’s station is tiled with azulejos of the harvest, and the quintas around it offer tours and tastings by appointment. Régua has the port museum and is the working town of the valley; Lamego, on the hill to the south, has the Remédios stairway, and Vila Nova de Foz Côa at the eastern end is the base for the Côa valley rock art. Drivers use the N222 along the south bank between Régua and Pinhão and the viewpoints above it.

Tips

• Sit on the right-hand side of the train going upriver for the water; the morning trains fill in summer and the harvest, so book.
• The harvest, in September and October, is the time to see the terraces worked and, at some quintas, to tread grapes; the heat in the Douro Superior in July and August is Alentejo-grade.
• Quinta visits need booking; the small ones do the best tastings and the big ones the best views.
• Ask for the Douro table wines as well as the port; the region makes as much of one as the other.
• A car lets you reach the miradouros above the river that no train or boat sees, but the roads are steep, narrow and slow.

Nearby

• Porto: two to two and a half hours by train to Pinhão.
• Lamego and its Remédios sanctuary: 15 minutes by road from Régua.
• Côa valley rock art: from Vila Nova de Foz Côa at the eastern end.
• Vila Real and the Palácio de Mateus: 25 km north of Régua.

Getting there

Regional and inter-regional trains on CP’s Linha do Douro run from Porto São Bento to Régua and Pocinho, with the scenic stretch beginning past Régua; Rede Expressos coaches reach the valley towns from the whole country and Rodonorte covers the region. By car the A4 runs from Porto to Vila Real, the A24 from Viseu through Lamego and Régua to Vila Real, and the IP2 comes up from the south to Foz Côa. Day cruises leave Porto’s Ribeira and Gaia quays for Régua and Pinhão, with the train back.