Experience the best of Pinhão

Pinhão sits on the north bank of the Douro river in northern Portugal, where the steep valley sides are cut into terraces of vines. This is the heart of the Alto Douro Wine Region, where port is made, first marked out as a wine area in the eighteenth century and now listed by UNESCO. The railway station is covered with panels of blue-and-white azulejo tiles showing the grape harvest and local scenes, and trains of the Douro line run along the river.

River cruises head up and down the valley, and many wine estates, called quintas, open their cellars and terraces for tastings. The Douro railway runs on to Pocinho, and the Côa Valley, upriver, has open-air rock engravings thousands of years old. Peso da Régua and its wine museum lie downriver, and Vila Real, with Mateus Palace, is in the hills to the north.

Port, the sweet fortified wine, and the drier table wines of the Douro are poured at the quintas, with roast kid, smoked sausages and almond sweets on the table. In late winter the almond trees blossom, in September and October the grapes are picked, some still trodden by foot in stone tanks, and summers can be very hot.