Discover the perfect place to explore the rich history of northern Portugal with the best wine tours in the Douro Valley. Fill your holiday with exquisite port and wine tastings and delicious local Portuguese food to pair it with. Although famous for its port wines, there is a lot more on offer for wine lovers in the Douro Valley than you might think, from Douro Valley river cruises, wine tastings, visits to quintas, port houses and palaces! Read on for our guide to the top wine tours in the Douro Valley.
1. Douro full-day wine tasting tour including visits to Sabrosa & Pinhão
Spend a full day on one of our top wine tasting tours in the Douro Valley, see the UNESCO world heritage site, and experience its picturesque scenery. Your first stop will in Sabrosa, a small village that covers a large number of renowned wine estates. Here you will indulge in the first wine tasting at a well-known winery and will learn about the wine production and history of the Douro region. This Douro Valley wine tour includes a delicious lunch in a traditional Portuguese restaurant where you can enjoy delicacies of the Portuguese cuisine, such as bacalhau (dried and salted cod) and polvo (octopus), paired with Douro red or white wine. After lunch, you will depart to Pinhão, one of the most famous villages in the Douro Valley, where you’ll enjoy a one-hour panoramic cruise on the waters of the Douro River, you can’t miss it! After the river cruise, there is yet another famous winery to visit (Quinta da Roeda – Croft/Taylor’s Group or Quinta São Luiz – Kopke/Calém Group) where you will be invited to taste three port wines.
2. Private Douro Valley wine tasting, river cruise & Mateus Palace
Discover the majestic home of Mateus rosé by visiting the Mateus Palace, where you can explore the beautiful gardens and sample their wines. The tour also includes lunch overlooking the Douro Valley wine terraces at Quinta do Portal, a top winery. You can take a private tour of their estate and taste some of their highly-regarded wines. You will then get to sail the Douro River, taking in the beautiful scenery on an hour-long cruise. End the day at the award-winning Sandeman winery in Quinta do Seixo, for a wine tour and tasting.
3. Wine tasting, lunch and river cruise in the Douro Valley from Porto
Take a day out from the hustle and bustle of Porto and discover the Douro Valley, learning more about the traditions of this wonderful wine region and enjoying the beautiful scenery and good gastronomy and wines. The first stop will be Peso da Régua, where you will visit a port producer and enjoy a wine tasting. Then you will sail through the calm waters of the Douro River on a traditional and relaxing rabelo boat trip, before enjoying a delicious lunch served in a typical restaurant in the village of Pinhão. Our wine tasting tour is not over yet! There is time to visit a local producer in Casal de Loivos and enjoy a wine, olive oil and honey tasting, before returning to Porto.
4. Grape harvest in the Douro Valley with private wine tasting tour and lunch from Porto
Grape harvest season is one of the most important and exciting times of the year in the Douro Valley. What better way to immerse yourself in the experience than by helping the winemakers pick and stomp the grapes? You will spend the day at a beautiful winery in the Douro Valley, surrounded by seemingly endless vineyards. You will enjoy a wine and appetizer tasting session before learn how to correctly pick the grapes. Then it’s time to roll up your trousers and contribute to the Douro Valley tradition of stomping the grapes by foot. You will have so much fun! All this activity will probably make you thirsty, so you will step into the Sanctuary of Moscatel to discover the delicious nectar they’ve been making for more than 100 years and you will enjoy a delicious traditional Portuguese lunch paired with the estate white and red wines. There will be also time for a a one-hour-long cruise along the Douro river before coming back to Porto.
5. Private wine tasting tour of the Douro Valley with wine tastings and lunch from Porto
There’s nothing quite like understanding a region and its history and culture than by visiting a winery (or even better, three!). Your first stop of the day will be at a winery in Favaios, where they specialise in Moscatel wine, a golden wine with delicious flavour and subtle aroma. Enjoy the complexity of this dessert wine that blends the Muscat grapes of the region with a variety of fruits. No trip to the Douro Valley is complete without a stop in Pinhão. Here you will enjoy a traditional Portuguese lunch in a beautiful local restaurant and then you will visit another winery. You will have the chance to understand how both Douro DOC Wine and port wine are made having the possibility of tasting both styles. You will learn how the effects of the region’s climate and rich soil influence the grapes and the special storage techniques that result in these distinctive flavors. Continue the tour at a family run winery and get a taste of the delicious range of extraordinary products you can get in the Douro Valley: Douro DOC, port wine, olive oil, and nuts.
6. Porto private gourmet food and culture walking tour
Combine wonderful smells and flavours of top-quality typical Portuguese products, such as fat juicy sardines and blossoming craft beers, with top historic sites, monuments and squares, and get the best of both worlds in one single day on one of the best wine tours in the Douro Valley. While walking through the windy cobblestone alleys and passing by Porto Cathedral and Ribeira Square, you will learn about Porto’s textured past and enjoy 10 food tastings exploring the vast diversity, and rich history of Portuguese food. You will also enjoy meandering through a 100 year-old open-air-market brimming with grandmother recipes and freshly harvested vegetables, fruits, herbs and nuts, a feast for the vegans and vegetarians among you.
7. Private wine tasting & sightseeing tour in the Douro Valley
This top Douro Valley wine tasting tour is perfect for those who want to get a more comprehensive understanding of the Douro region, but also savor a wide range of traditional foods prepared by locals. As the sun casts long shadows on terraced vines, you will enjoy an intimate vineyard tour at a small family winery in the heart of the Douro Valley, followed by a wine tasting admiring the stunning scenery. Then you will enjoy a delicious traditioanl Portuguese lunch in a quaint little restaurant tucked away in the mountainous town of Ervedosa, easy to pass if you blink! The menu focuses exclusively on family recipes, prepared for centuries in households across the region. Another fabulous surprise of the day will include a relaxing river cruise in an old school barco de rabelo, the very same boat that carried wine barrels down the Douro River for centuries. The tour ends with a visit to one of the most dynamic and stunning wineries in the region. Propped just over the river, you’ll enjoy both a tasting and tour under the waning afternoon light.
8. Porto city gourmet and private walking tour
Discover the home of port wine with this private driving tour of Porto. Soak up the local culture as you are guided around top locations, including the historic city center, the Sé Cathedral and Bolhão Market. Take in the views across the Douro River on the Eiffel tower inspired Dom Luis bridge. No trip to Porto would be complete without tasting some port wine, so you can also take a tour of a port cellar with a port tasting afterwards. You can then roam the city and stop for lunch and shopping.
The Douro Valley is known for its dramatically beautiful scenery characterised by terraced vineyards and steep hillsides dotted with villages and centuries-old quintas. But what makes this wine region so special it’s the exclusive production of port wine and the abundance in gastronomic delicacies. The best way to experience the Douro Valley is by taking a guided wine tasting tour (so you can let someone else do the driving!) that will take you behind the scene of one of the oldest wine region in the world at the discovery of the different port and wine styles made here.
Check out more of the top wine and food tours in Douro Valley If you would like to make a bespoke booking, get in touch with us.
