Portugal’s Douro Valley: Where To Sip and Sleep This September
Across the Douro this September, entire communities will come together to contribute to the vindimas, ‘wine harvests,’ a centuries’ old harvest festival that culminates in the foot-stomping lagaradas — with immaculately clean feet, locals and visitors join forces to tread the grapes in vast tanks. Portuguese festive music fills the air and sets the rhythm for the stompers, as their legs turn purple with grape nectar. The hard work is well-rewarded, of course, with plenty of wine and food.
Writer Lucy Bryson takes us to the celebrated Quinta da Côrte wine estate where she discovered high style, gourmet food and — naturally — superb wine.
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It’s been a hot 90-minute drive from Porto to reach this blissfully remote spot, and I step out of the car baking afternoon heat, the summer rays especially fierce at this altitude.
No sooner have I changed into something cooler does the sky darken dramatically. There’s a loud clap of thunder followed by deep, ominous rumbling. The smell of hot earth before a downpour rises instantly and unmistakably and sure enough, the heavens open seconds later.
It looks like my planned afternoon dip in the hillside infinity pool is off the menu, and I hunker down in the reception area, sipping strawberry-infused water and wondering if it’s too early to enquire about wine tastings.
This is the heart of the world’s oldest demarcated wine region and less than an hour into my visit I can appreciate the extreme conditions that make Douro wine production both challenging and exhilarating.
Best known for its port, the Douro is increasingly revered for its table wines as well, having been declared ‘the most underrated wine region in Europe’ by several wine writers. Perhaps most celebrated of all is the Cima Corgo — the entire region is a UNESCO World Heritage site in honor of the fact that wine has been made here for over 2,000 years.
Quinta da Côrte has been producing red wines for centuries, and today embraces modern ecotourism in fine style while maintaining the traditional production techniques that help make Douro wines so unique. One of the oldest properties in the central Douro region, the estate is now in the capable hands of Vignobles Austruy, the French family-run winery company that owns beautiful wine estates in some of the world’s most revered wine regions.
This is the heart of the world’s oldest demarcated wine region and less than an hour into my visit I can appreciate the extreme conditions that make Douro wine production both challenging and exhilarating.
Quinta da Côrte has been producing red wines for centuries, and today embraces modern ecotourism in fine style while maintaining the traditional production techniques that help make Douro wines so unique. One of the oldest properties in the Upper Douro region, the estate is now in the capable hands of Vignobles Austray, the French family-run winery company that owns beautiful wine estates in some of the world’s most revered wine regions.
Founder Philippe Austray already owned the Commanderie de Peyrassol in Côtes de Provence and the Château Malescasse in Haut-Médoc, when he snapped up the crumbling Quinta da Côrte in 2012. Despite the sorry state of the buildings, he fell in love with the property and the land, sensing great potential.
With a passionate team including nephew Alban Cacaret and acclaimed architect Pierre Yovanovitch, Phillipe Austray set about breathing new life into the land and the building.
Today, the 19th-century property has been transformed into a chic, design-led boutique hotel that effortlessly combines tradition with modernity and high style. The whitewashed buildings glimmer in the sun, and the eclectic interiors showcase another of Austray’s major passions — art. Each piece has been painstakingly sourced from local and international artists, the designer rugs, intricate azulejo tiles and the traditional carved wooden Carnival masks in the library showing a real pleasure in celebrating both folk art and high art.
Four of the eight rooms are located within the main casa, with the others set in the grounds and gardens nearby, a stone’s throw from the famous adegas, or wine cellars.
My light-flooded room has no television — this is a place to switch off — and who wants to watch TV when you can fling open those traditional white shutters and take in glorious views, or sink into a deep bathtub, surrounded by stunning bottle-green tiles, and pamper yourself with toiletries from retro-chic Porto company Castelbel.
This fusion of the traditional and the modern is a theme in both the accommodations and the winemaking. Many of the plots are not suited to modern, mechanical winemaking methods, and as such much of the labor is still carried out as it has been for generations - men and horses working the land, the men using pickaxes and other small tools to manage the land and tend the vines. The cellars look like the last word in modernity, but head down below ground and you’ll see the ports and table wines are aged in oak caskets as they have been for centuries.
Indoors, the impeccably furnished lounge areas and cozy library are pleasant places to hunker down during a storm: especially when I’m handed a crisp porto-tonico (white port and tonic) to set the mood.
The thunderous downpour passes as soon as it began, and as I step out onto the patio I can fully admire those rolling hills. The slopes stretch into infinity, and every so often the eye lights upon enormous bold white lettering standing stark amid the calming green of the vineyards: denoting the owners of each wine estate. Big names in port wine production, such as Sandeman and Crofts, sit alongside smaller producers such as Quinta da Côrte.
I follow signs to the piscina for an unlikely amount of time, along winding paths through vineyards neatly marked according to grape variety, and sure enough, there amid the vines is a pristine infinity pool. And forget views of line after line of white sun loungers: nothing stands between this pool and sweeping views over the hills and shimmering river below. But just as I'm tempted to enter the water, ominous rumbles echo through the hills, and black clouds peek over the horizon. I scuttle back to the hotel.
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We gather for dinner in a rustic-chic dining room, where the long table invites communal eating, and we are joined by general manager and winemaker Marta Casanova shortly before French Vinogbles Austruy VP Alban Cacaret appears, rain-soaked and shaken by a thunderous flight from Provence. “This weather!” He exclaims with good-natured dismay, “I thought it was going to be sunny”.
But nothing soothes the soul like a good home-cooked meal, and food is a strong point at Quinta da Côrte. Traditional Portuguese dishes are served with modern aplomb, and before our mains of bacalhau (salt cod) and vegetables from the estate come plates of fresh-baked bread (including a genuinely delicious fresh-baked gluten-free version) for dunking in the estate’s own olive oils. Peppery and packed with flavor, they are in a different league from mass-produced store versions. I’ve never been excited by olive oil before, but this is a revelation: I can’t stop dunking that bread.
I’m seated next to Marta Casanova, the woman tasked with overseeing every step of the wine-making process at Quinta da Côrte: from vine to bottle. And it’s no small task.
The estate has a growing reputation for producing bold, robust reds (including the estate’s pride and joy, the Princesa. Marta explains to me that the estate’s native grapes are all red-wine varieties, with the white wine grapes bought in from trusted local vineyards, before she and her team work their viticultural magic. The resulting white wine is a fresh, fruity and aromatic drink - but go easy, despite its drinkability it packs an alcohol punch of 14 percent.
To her left sits manager Alban Cacaret, a man clearly passionate about wine, food and the arts. As the cheeseboard approaches, he laughs that France may produce the best cheese and wine in the world, but that the Douro region runs them close. And anybody who has tasted the tangy goats and sheeps’ cheeses, made in small batches from animals that roam from one grassy pasture to another each day, would find it hard to disagree.
Postponed by the downpour, we tour the gorgeous grounds - not just those hallowed acres of vineyards, but also aromatic fields of herbs, cherries, strawberries and almond trees - the following day.
Marta Casanova surveys the storm damage, inspecting leaves and explaining the level of care that goes into tending this vast terroir — each vine must be protectively bound by hand along its supportive wire, keeping the worst of the weather from damaging the grapes.
I visited in June, and after the heat of summer, Casanova and her team will reap the rewards of their efforts in late September, when the vindimas, or ‘wine harvests,’ begin.
Covid regulations allowing — negative testing/and or double vaccine required — visitors can sign up to take part in the grape treading at Quinta da Côrte. It’s a wonderful way to eat, drink and be merry, and then settle down for the night in some seriously chic surroundings.
Good to Know: Rooms at Quinta da Côrte start at 170 Euros in low season (November to March), 200 Euros in mid-season (April to July) and 280 Euros in August-October high season. As well as the opportunity to take part in the grape treading, the estate offers wine-tasting experiences, gourmet picnics in the grounds, and food and wine tours of the area. A car is recommended due to the rural location, but transfers can be arranged if necessary.