The Douro Valley, wine country carved out of the schist

The valley’s roads

An hour from Porto, beyond the Serra do Marão, the landscape changes. The hills close in, rain grows scarce, and the slopes of the Douro carry vine terraces. From Régua to Pinhão, the N222 follows the water, bend after bend, between the quintas, the wine estates. From the quay at Pinhão, boats and rabelos take an hour-long trip among the terraces.

Above, steep little roads climb to the viewpoints. Miguel Torga loved the viewpoint at São Leonardo de Galafura. In his diary, the poet calls the valley ‘a geological poem’.

To the east, the valley grows hotter and drier: this is the Douro Superior, all the way to the border. Where the Côa joins the Douro, a museum presents its Palaeolithic engravings. They are visited by 4x4 with a park guide. At Penascosa, in the evening, a low-angled lamp makes them appear on the rock.

Until 1986, port could only be exported from Gaia. The cable car glides over the roofs of the lodges, at the foot of the Dom Luís I Bridge. This iron arch, opened in 1886, was designed by Théophile Seyrig, Eiffel’s former partner.

The success of port drew fraud. In 1756 Pombal, the king’s minister, set up a company to control the trade. From 1758 to 1761 the vineyard was marked out by 335 granite stones engraved ‘Feitoria’. The Douro is often held to be the world’s first demarcated and regulated wine region. In Régua, the Museu do Douro occupies the company’s former headquarters.

The schist terraces

There is nothing natural about this landscape: it was built, wall by wall. The schist was broken up and socalcos raised — narrow terraces held up by dry-stone walls. Phylloxera, which arrived in 1863, ruined many of them. These dead terraces, the mortórios, now carry olive or almond trees. Since the 1970s, bulldozers have also carved out terraces of bare earth. Unesco listed the Alto Douro Wine Region in 2001.

For a long time, the rapids of the Cachão da Valeira barred the river to boats. They were blasted away between 1780 and 1792, and the vines spread upstream. Even so, in 1861 a shipwreck there cost the life of Baron Forrester, the river’s cartographer. Dona Antónia Ferreira, known as ‘Ferreirinha’, survived: her skirts kept her afloat, it is said. In 1877 she bought the land of Vale Meão, near Pocinho. In 1952 these vines produced the first Barca Velha, a great Douro red.

What not to miss

1. 1São Bento stationSome twenty thousand azulejos by Jorge Colaço tell the story of Portugal.
2. 2São Leonardo de GalafuraTorga’s viewpoint, high above Régua, at sunset.
3. 3Lamego’s RemédiosA Baroque stairway of 686 steps climbs to the sanctuary.
4. 4The bridge at UcanhaA tower guards the bridge where the abbey of Salzedas once levied a toll.
5. 5Pinhão stationIts azulejo panels from the 1930s show the grape harvest and the rabelos.
6. 6Mateus PalaceIts façade adorns the Mateus Rosé label, a wine that was never produced there.

The Douro Valley in pictures

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At Penascosa, an animal incised in outline into the schist during the Palaeolithic.

The Douro’s table

Port is tasted in the quintas and in Gaia’s lodges; as an aperitif, white port is drunk topped up with tonic. The valley also makes great dry reds, Lamego its sparkling espumante, and Favaios, up on the plateau, its moscatel and its bread.

Cabrito, kid roasted in the oven with its rice, is the dish of feast days. Lamego keeps its presunto, a cured ham, and its bôla, a bread filled with cured meats. In Porto, the francesinha — a sandwich smothered in melted cheese and sauce — sets you up for the day.