The Douro Valley

The Douro is a valley, a river, a vineyard, it is wine. Over the river, the human influence, who transformed the slate mountains into country and walls, an epic common effort of making different cultures meet. Protected from the damp Atlantic hoists by the mountains of Marão and Montemuro, the production area was defined as wine area for the first time in 1757 - the first viticulture regulation of the world - in the northeast of Portugal, between Barqueiros and Mazouco, near the Spanish border. This is the wine country! The area extends today over 250.000 hectares, whereby however the vineyard takes only 40,000 hectares, deep embedded in the Douro river basin, and in its tributaries: Corgo, Torto, Pinhão, Tua, Côa, amongst others. The entire area is divided in three sub-regions: in the west, the Baixo Corgo, in the center the Cima Corgo and in the east the Douro Superior - with different microclimatic particularities, however always with cold winters and hot and dry summers. The combination of these factors, as well as the selective choice of stocks is decisive for the quality and purity of the wines, which are no more than the effect of the harmonious marriage between the earth, the climate and the love and art of humans. But the Douro is not only vineyard, wine, almonds, olive oil... It is also its people, the wine farmers, who shaped its history and traditions; and the still untouched idyllic Quintas, with their inviting welcome. But rather than reading about it, you should discover the Port Wine Route with your own eyes.