Day Tour to Quinta do Vesuvio

Post your experiences of travel, especially for the Douro region. Make recommendations for places to stay and visit or ask advice from those that have already been there.
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Bertie3000
Cockburn’s Special Reserve
Posts: 41
Joined: 11:28 Sat 30 Oct 2021

Day Tour to Quinta do Vesuvio

Post by Bertie3000 »

I have been meaning to share this for a while in case anyone is considering this trip but time flies sometimes!

In September my wife and I spent a week in the Douro, staying at Quinta da Gricha and The Vintage House. A real highlight for us was a day trip to Quinta do Vesuvio (see visit.quintadovesuvio.com). It is not a cheap experience so I wanted to share our thoughts on the day in case others were considering. Although you are asked to book 7 days in advance, they accommodated us with 2 days notice.

We arrived just after 10 to be met by Luis, who had also shown us around Bomfim earlier in the week. He is a fantastic guide whose family has a history in the port trade and was a true lover of port. Ask for him if you can. As the Quinta is not in general open to tourists, you have the house to yourself unless a member of the family is there.

The day started with a 20-30 minute tour of the beautiful house itself. Sadly the chapel was closed as it had been vandalised weeks earlier (who does these things!). After that, we were driven by jeep around the estate, stopping at various viewpoints. We had timed it just right as they were picking the Touriga Nacional that day and the grapes tasted perfect. I know 2021 was a challenging year for many but I will certainly be buying some Vesuvio.

After touring the vineyards, we were taken to the small tasting room where a small number of bottles of each Vesuvio vintage are stored. For the tasting, they opened bottles of Quinta do Vesuvio vintage port from 1994, 2003 and 2011. In addition the tasting included Quinta do Vesuvio Douro Doc 2011 and Pombal do Vesuvio Douro Doc. We were never hurried and finished the tasting after maybe 45 mins.

After the tasting, lunch was served on the terrace. This is a wonderful setting overlooking the river. We had requested vegetarian food when booking and the food was great. During the meal, Altano wines were served to match the courses. For desert, the ports from the tasting earlier were placed on the table and we were able to help ourselves to these for the remainder of our visit. The 1994 and the 2011 were in great demand at this point.

The final part of the tour is a visit to the lagares. Due to COVID, they had decided not to tread the grapes in 2021 so it was very quiet. It was still great to see the famous lagares.

We finished the tour around 430pm and headed back to Pinhao.

Overall, whilst this is not a cheap trip, when you consider what a complete tour it was, it felt a very fair price to us and would certainly do it again if the chance arose.
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JacobH
Quinta do Vesuvio 1994
Posts: 3300
Joined: 16:37 Sat 03 May 2008
Location: London, UK
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Re: Day Tour to Quinta do Vesuvio

Post by JacobH »

I saw this trip advertised when I last went to Portugal but didn’t quite have time to squeeze it in. I’m glad to see it was as good as it sounded. I hope it will still be on offer the next time we made it there.

(PS. Isn’t it nice you can actually get decent vegetarian food in the Douro, now?!)
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Christopher
Niepoort LBV
Posts: 286
Joined: 14:24 Thu 17 Jan 2008
Location: London

Re: Day Tour to Quinta do Vesuvio

Post by Christopher »

I did this visit with a few friends new to the Douro in June. It is absolutely exceptional. Yes it’s a lot of money but value for money and the experience you get is well worth it. I think it is an extremely fair price and would have no hesitation in doing again.
We were looked after so well by Luis and wines and ports we had were the very best from the estate. The food was great.
It was a highlight of our visit.
I would recommend this for both very experienced hands on the Douro and people on their first trip will be blown away .
I think it’s great to see the Symington’s having different types of visits to the Douro and I love the fact it is on a exclusive basis.
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