Portugal for wine lovers

Alentejo

Welcome to Portugal! Upon arrival in Lisbon airport, pick up your rented car and make your way to Alentejo for your overnight. Spend the rest of the day to unwind, relax and acclimatise.

This evening, enjoy a private visit to the Estate’s Wine cellar with tasting of the Estate’s products. This experience includes tasting of 5 wines: White and Red regional wines, White and Red Reserve wines and Rosé wine as well as tasting of olive oil and biologic olives, fresh homemade goat cheese seasoned with oreganos and regional Alentejo bread.

Mountain Bike & Picnic Lunch

Today, you will meet your private guide at the lobby of your hotel for a Mountain Bike ride followed by a picnic lunch of regional product and São Lourenço do Barrocal Estate’s wine.

Discover the homestead and ancestral landscape of the region through unpaved paths, gentle hills and ancient olive groves; venture out over jagged and baroque trails, accesing places you cannot usually reach by car and immerse yourselfe in nature and local history. If you feel like an explorer, choose with your guide the trail that leaves the estate and takes you right up to the of Monsaraz hill and thourgh the vineyards of the estate.

Monsaraz

Take this day to visit the surrounding village of Monsaraz with your private guide.

This extremely beautiful mediaeval town has succeeded in preserving its own distinctive characteristics over the centuries. Walking through the streets of Monsaraz is like going back in time, for it is a truly unique place where one can find all the peace and tranquility that have been forgotten by the modern era.

The most immediate visual impression in the town is that of the whitewash and schist of its houses and buildings. Every year, throughout the month of July, Monsaraz becomes an open-air museum, affording visitors the opportunity to get to know more about the customs and habits used in the production of Alentejo handicraft, appreciate the delights of the regional cuisine and enjoy the various cultural events that are held there, including music, theatre, dance and art exhibitions.

As far as the town’s architectural heritage is concerned, the highlights are the mediaeval castle and keep, the former court building (built between the 14^th and 16^th centuries) and the parish church of Nossa Senhora da Lagoa (dating from the 16^th and 17^th centuries).

This afternoon, you will savor a typical lunch at Esporão Wine & Olive Estate.

At Herdade do Esporão, life is lived in accordance with each season, where all activities are undertaken in harmony with the cycles of nature and what they provide us with.

Modern and traditional knowledge combine with respect for nature, reflected in experiences that extend to all Herdade do Esporão’s activities.

Part of the Reguengos de Monsaraz DOC and the Alentejo’s montado ecosystem (cork oak forests), Herdade do Esporão has extraordinary conditions for agriculture – large thermal amplitudes, poor and various soils and extraordinary biodiversity that helps us produce in balance with the environment. With 576 hectares of vineyards, olive groves and the other crops we grow using organic methods (157 hectares already with organic certification). Here are planted around 40 grape varieties, 4 types of olives, orchards and kitchen gardens.

The Medieval history of the region began with the Reconquista of Monsaraz and Reguengos in 1232. Since then, wine and olive oil have become an indelible aspect of the region. The geographical boundaries of Herdade do Esporão were only established in 1267, and have been practically unchanged since then.

In 1985, the first vintage saw the creation of the Esporão brand and the first wine produced by what was then Finagra, S.A.. In 1989, wine began being exported to what is now over 50 international markets. Eight years later, Esporão entered the olive oil business with the acquisition of SPAZA (Sociedade Produtora de Azeites do Alentejo) – now Esporão Azeites.

Leisure Day

Take this day to restore your energies enjoying the grounds of the estate at your leisure.

Douro

Start the day visiting the charming city of Évora.

Being the most important city in the south of the country, Évora has a lot to offer (it is a UNESCO Heritage site also) and it can all be done walking through its narrow streets, mingling with the locals and watching how day to day is lived here.

We will start with the remains of the Diana Temple, built during the Roman period in honor to Emperor Augustus. From there we will continue to the important Cathedral in late romantic/early Gothic style.

The most impressive attraction of the city however is the Bones’ Chapel – a small chapel inside S. Francisco Church where all the walls and ceiling are covered with skulls and bones. You must visit it to understand it!

The guide will also show you the best places for a quick taste of the local specialties.

Continue then making your way to Douro.

Experiencing the Douro

Start the day with a private visit to Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo Wine Estate

With a story longer than 250 years, the property displays conserved structures and the cellar original building from 1764, after interventions by the architect Arnaldo Barbosa.

The winery produced more than 3,500 barrels of wine from neighboring estates and it was soon ‘integrated in the first demarcation of the region’. The historic sites that are still preserved give notice to this historic weight.

The program of your visit includes private guided wine tour with premium tasting in the end.

Afterwards, your private driver will lead you to Quinta do Crasto Wine Estate.

Quinta do Crasto is located on the right bank of the river Douro, halfway between Régua and Pinhão. The estate covers 130 hectares, of which 70 are planted with grade “A” vineyards.

Sitting on a privileged location in the Douro Demarcated Region, Quinta do Crasto has been in the family of Leonor and Jorge Roquette for over a century.

Like other great Douro estates, its origins lie in ancient times (the name CRASTO comes from the Latin word castrum, a Roman fort). References to Quinta do Crasto date as far back as the early seventeenth century, long before the Douro became the world’s first demarcated wine region in 1756.

This visit will finish with a regional lunch accompanied by the wines here produced.

Now you will embark in a private cruise on the Douro river, in which you will have the chance to dazzle with the beautiful landscape of the Douro Valley.

The River Douro rises in Spain and flows more or less East / West across Northern Portugal reaching the sea at Portugal’s second city, Oporto. Once a fast-flowing river of rapids and narrow ravines it has been tamed over the past 25 years by the construction of 8 dams along its length giving it, in most places, a tranquil, lake-like appearance.

The valley is spectacularly beautiful with the hills falling steeply down to the water’s edge becoming more and more sparsely populated and wild the further inland one travels, with more of the land being given over to terraces of vines and, to a lesser extent, olive groves.

This is Port Wine country and was, in fact, the world’s first demarcated wine region being established in 1756. Evidence of the Port Wine industry can be seen along the valley with all the famous company names – Cockburns, Taylors, Sandeman and others – appearing on large placards on the hillsides. The color of the land changes throughout the year as the vines mature.

This evening enjoy fine dining at DOC restaurant, with majestic views of the Douro River.

Situated in Folgosa by the Douro river, on the road between Régua and Pinhão, in what is one of the most beautiful scenic routes in the country, this restaurant occupies a building of contemporary lines with a picket based that extends along an elegant wooden deck overlooking the river, and it also includes a river dock with capacity for 15 boats, a wine cellar and a car park.

It is a place of enormous beauty, blending the grandeur of the vineyard covered mountains and the serenity of the Douro river and the riverside villages, only awakened by the regular passage of the train.

DOC operates as an open window on this breathtaking scenery, which makes every meal a unique and special moment.

Leisure Day

Take today to enjoy the facilities of your splendid hotel at your leisure.

Departure

Drive to Porto airport on time to drop off your rented car and board your flight directed home. Deparutre.