“Casa do Monte:” The “House of the Mountain” in the Douro Valley was a great place for a family gathering. It was actually Emily’s family, but with room for more, Emily invited Sara and me, and another couple, Glenn and Mary, who have recently moved to Braga from Austin, Texas. With fourteen people at Casa do Monte, we had the whole house to ourselves. At other times, it is a hotel/ B&B. Breakfast was provided each day, and we had two large dinners served at the house.
The family members were Emily & Van, Sarah and Nancy, Bebe & Jay, Susan & Ken, Amanda & Doug.
The house itself was fantastic, with lots of room for everyone: a huge dining room comfortably seating all fourteen of us, a large kitchen, three or four “living rooms” for groups or reading, a game room, a billiards room, even a theater with a projection TV. Outside is a lovely swimming pool sampled by many of us as a bit too cold, but Susan enjoyed it regularly.
Every day here was great, but here are some highlights from the week:
Wine Tour in the Douro Valley: 9/13/2021
Sara arranged for a guided wine tasting tour in the Douro Valley. Our group could only be eight plus Bruno Caldosa, our guide. This was a fabulous tour of the region, a boat ride on the Douro, two wine tastings at vineyards and one surprise port tasting. It was a full day. Despite the weather predictions, the day was a lovely mix of clouds and sun with only a few raindrops. The harder rain didn’t start until our return from our last stop.
Driving through the Douro Valley: The land here is all along the very steep sides of the mountains. The roads are often narrow and full of turns and switchbacks. Many are single lane roads with traffic going both ways. Thank God that Bruno was driving and reminding us not to worry. What was scary? #1 driving along a very narrow road, with no shoulder, and a steep drop off from the edge of the road. Let just one wheel go off the side, you would tumble down forever. #2 On a single lane road, we approach a blind turn knowing there could be someone coming around the other way. An accident could be head on, or one or both vehicles over the edge and rolling down the mountain. Needless to say, I worried despite Bruno’s encouragement. But give him kudo’s, he got us all back safely. He picked us up around 9:20am and brought us safely back to Casa do Monte at 8:00pm.
The landscape is beautiful and so different: I felt like I was on another planet. The mountainsides are all quite steep, but there are terraced vineyards, olive tree groves, roads and dwellings all the way up and down. It’s beautiful nature but also lovely the way the Portuguese have adapted and adjusted to life up and down the sides of this steep valley.
Stop #1: Quinta de San Eufemia: One of the family-owned wineries still operating. Run by two sisters with the help of other family members, they produce award-winning ports and dry wines. We visited the vineyard, observed as workers brought a truckload of grapes to the winery, and sat for tasting. We sampled four ports and two dry wines, all with generous pours for each of us. Bruno and our hostess educated us about the history of port and wine production in the valley – and the story of this family, going back many generations. We must have spent two hours here, having a great time, and everyone agreed that these ports were better than most of what they had tasted before. We all bought bottles of wine and port from this fabulous winery to share with those in our group who couldn’t come with us.
Stop #2: Mira Douro: This is a high point from which we had spectacular views down to the river and across the mountains. And Bruno also treated us to a surprise port tasting – he brought out a bottle of (unlabeled) port made by his neighbor and small port glasses for each of us. It was perfect.
Stop #3: Lunch at a restaurant in Regua: This restaurant serves traditional Portuguese food. Bruno helped us order starters and main courses which we all shared around the table. Of course, there was a great codfish dish and a delicious veal dish. Bacalhau (cod fish) is one of the main dishes in Portugal and is served in lots of different ways.
Stop #4: From Pinao, a boat ride along the Douro River. The trip was short, perhaps half an hour up and another half hour back on the Douro river. This time we would look up from the river rather than down from the mountains, noting the many wineries and port houses with their buildings and large signs along the river. It was very relaxing.
Stop #5: Another Mira Douro: Bruno took us up another hair-raising climb to another spectacular viewpoint: and this one had another winery at the top. To get there, we had another frightening ride up another mountain, but then we had magnificent views of the river and the valley below. We enjoyed tasting more wine and port, along with honey and olive oil. We even discovered a new mixed drink, White Port and Tonic Water served over ice with a mint leaf.
Visit to Quinta da Pacheca: 9/16/2019
All fourteen of us journeyed out past Regua to visit the winery Quinta da Pacheca. We tasted wine and port, stomped grapes, and enjoyed an amazing dinner.
It was a lovely day. Sara and I rode with Glenn & Mary. Glen enjoys driving on these narrow, winding, scary roads, so we were happy to let him drive. The fact that he feels comfortable on the roads made us feel a bit more comfortable too, but I dreaded every blind turn along the way.
We all arrived at Quinta da Pacheca at about the same time, near 6:00. This is a big, commercial winery with lovely vineyards around the estate. The setting is gorgeous. We began at outdoor tables with a tasting of two wines, a white and a red, and then three ports, a vintage Ruby Port, a White Port and a 30 year Tawny Port. Both were terrific. I still prefer the tawny’s to the ruby’s, but this was surely the best ruby I had ever tasted. Learned something new: Tawney Ports should be served chilled.
Daniel, our host was a charming and funny young fellow, and we were a rowdy group of oldsters. After the tasting, he gave us each a souvenir T-Shirt, and then led us through the room where wines are aged in barrels and then up the stairs to the stomping area. We changed into their shorts and our new T-shirts for the experience and then climbed into these huge vats about two feet deep in juice and grapes. We were assured that this was for real, that they’re really making wine from the grapes we’re stomping. In a neighboring vat there were four men stomping; we learned that they are policemen who come by regularly after their shift to help stomp the grapes. While stomping, we sang “I been workin’ on the Railroad,” and then “What do you with a drunken sailor.” As we left the vat, all of us with purple legs below our knees, one of our crew hosed off our legs. We will surely post videos of this experience, so we joked that many of our closest friends will never drink wine again.
Then Daniel brought us to a small house on the property where we would enjoy our meal. Daniel said his goodbye and left us. We had a beautiful large table in the room, all to ourselves, and enjoyed a delicious dinner: a starter course (I don’t remember what it was) a first course of codfish (Portuguese call bacalau) with potato and greens. The second course was very tender, delicious pork, and finally dessert, a Crème Brulé with fruit. Each serving was paired with wine: first a red that looked like rose to us, then a white, then a red, and along with the Crème Brule, a nice port. If you are counting, we had 5 small glasses during our wine tasting and then another 4 glasses with dinner. There might have been 1 more, but I lost count. It was one of our most amazing-ever dining experiences.
Hiking In the Douro: Many in the group enjoyed other excursions out into the Douro Valley, and a few took the train into Porto for a day. Sara hiked with BeBe and Jay on four different days. Evan joined them for a couple of days, but on others he stayed in to write, read and play the guitar. All of our hikes began right from the Villa. We’d walk out the door, open the All-Trails app on our phones and just walk. We weren’t sure where we’d end up, but we trusted All-Trails to bring us back home.
Challenging, Yes: All the hikes were pretty challenging because there is such elevation in the Douro: you can’t go anywhere without a lot of up and down. The roads and pathways that criss-cross the mountains make it difficult for outsiders like us to know the way. You may start down a narrow, paved road, which then becomes a cobblestone road, then a dirt road, and a bit later it’s overgrown with grass. If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself on a path along a terraced vineyard used to maintain and harvest grapes.
But So Beautiful: Such views were well worth the effort. One of the joys of hiking includes the hard work of climbing with the reward of fantastic views, like those Sara has caught in her pictures. So you stop to take your gorgeous picture. Then you climb a little higher, and the view seems even more compelling, so you grab the phone and take more pictures, just great ones, until you hike even higher and find even better ones. Enough said: Let Sara’s pictures tell the tale.
