Excellent wine experience in the small town of Pinhau in the Douro river valley. Unlike many of the wine tours in the Porto area which are cellar/tasting oriented this experience is unique in the sense it is about the land with the entire tour being outside on the mountain terraced vineyards. The tour starts in the main building where you get into a minivan and are slowly driven up the steep mountain side on switch back roads stopping along the way at key observation points to discuss the grapes, the land, and other vegetation/trees that are growing on the mountain side to include cork trees, orange trees, olive tree's and of course the different types of grapes grown on the mountain. The views on this trek up are absolutely breath taking amplified by the altitude you are at and the vista/panoramic nature of the views with terrace vineyards as far as the eye can see, the Douro river snaking its way through the valley and beautiful mountains in the back drop. Absolutely gorgeous!
As part of this tour you also get into good informative discussions on the soil/rock type in the vineyard and importance of it retaining the limited amount of rain this valley gets, the types of grapes grown on the mountainside from very old to new and how they are managed/trellised, how the slope which varies going up the mountain affects the trellace method used (Horizontal versus vertical), seasonal pruning methods and the list goes on and on. At the very top we got out and were allowed to stroll along the upper trellace rows and get some great pictures and taste the grapes. This was really cool and I have some shots I will be turning into metal prints and hanging in my basement where I store my personal wine at home.
Following the vineyard tour we returned to the main building at the bottom of the mountain for our included wine tasting which was a nice and fitting way to end this experience. Overall we all had a great time and will cherish the memories from this excursion. If you are in the Pinhao area you absolutely owe it to yourself to do this tour where you will not be disappointed. Wine lover or not, the views from this tour are worth the price of a ticket alone. Five stars in my book! read more