Pinhão Boat, lunch&wine tour

I thought we were just getting a boat ride up the Duoro, a lunch at some local joint and a normal wine tasting. However, the boat ride was beautiful and we had great weather. The surprise came when we went to lunch - a private lunch for the 4 in our group in a local home. Farm picked vegetables from their garden, home baked bread, home made wine, etc. etc. etc. An AMAZING experience. The wine tasting turned out to be private as well, although I think in busy times would have included other guests. What a great experience!!!!

We spent a fabulous 6 hours with Antonio from Douro Walks. We were picked up by Antonio at the Pinhão train station. He showed us the beautiful tile scenes within this small train station, depicting the lives of those working the terraced hills of the Pinhão area. Antonio then drove us to the river for an hour long ride on a small solar powered boat. This was a fabulous, relaxing hour on a electric solar powered boat with a small group. There were six of us on the boat that day. No engine noise or fumes. We traveled along the river seeing the beautiful terraced vineyards along the Douro valley while sampling 2 wines from Adega de Favaios. A perfect relaxing hour on the tranquil Douro river. Next, we were driven outside of Pinhão to the town of Ervedosa do Douro where we had lunch at Antonio's house prepared by his wife Silvia. This was a one of a kind experience and the highlight of our trip. Silvia grew up in this town and prepared an amazing lunch. When you travel, you usually are among many other tourists. This was an intimate lunch. The inside of their house has been preserved as it was built back in the 19th century. The home has a small room that was a storefront with stone walls and has some original pieces in it. It is like stepping back in time and you can imagine what it was like selling your goods out of your store, back in the day. The room now functions as a cold cellar. People here are farmers. Antonio and Silvia make their own olive oil and honey. The dining room had stone walls and floors with small casks of wine made by Silvia's family. We had a sumptuouss lunch with homemade bread, fried fish, wild boar, a chickpea salad and a vegetable salad which were all locally sourced. It was a fabulous meal in an intimate setting within their home. We had lunch with Antonio and he told is about the house, himself and his life here. We had homemade red wine, homemade olive oil from their olive trees and homemade honey from their beehives. There was prosciutto and cheese and, of course, Port wine, poured from a cask right there in the dining room. That port was fabulous. Kudos to Silvia's father. People who love to travel always search for an experience with locals. This lunch was the real deal and we are so happy we had the opportunity to enjoy such a unique experience. Although we did not inquire, you could probably purchase their small batch honey and oil olive as I saw stacked cans and glass bottles on the shelves of the market room. I forgot to ask them about it. After lunch, we were driven to a large production winery called Quevedo - Quinta Senhora do Rosário. They produce 1 million bottles of wine per year of various types. Whites, reds, various ports and even some spirits. Even though the production is large and modern, our tour and wine tasting was small and intimate. We have been on many wine tours and all are different. This winery sits up and you look down on the vineyards It's about 30 minutes outside of Pinhao. It was amazing to see steel casks that hold Tens of thousands of liters of wine. Harvest was still going on there and so we had the unique opportunity to see wines in production. Grapes in large bins just recently crushed, people working the production line, bottling, labeling and even the final placing the bottles in boxes for shipping.. It was great to see a working winery while they were still in harvest. By the way it was only my wife and I on this tour at the winery which was amazing. Antonio was waiting for us and he dropped us off back at the Quinta where we were staying.. This tour was the perfect way to experience the Douro valley in a very personal way with such a friendly local guide who personalized the experience by opening his home to us. This is a tour that really should not be missed and if you were taking a train from Porto to Pinhão for a day, this would be the perfect way to experience the Duoro Valley.