Vineyard Heaven - Portugal Road Trip Part 6
A brilliant experience with Portugal Easycamp
Staying on vineyards and enjoying the vines by the bottle!
I first learnt about Portugal Easycamp from a link whilst doing research and contacted the owners for advice about how we signed up, how to become a member and to see if we could be cheeky and get a sticker for Daisy. The response was immediate and very welcoming. Teresa it seemed, was going to be a great contact to have on our trip. We didn’t know which host or hosts we would use, but we knew this adventure had to include at least one stay on a vineyard, maybe two as the idea of being amongst the vines, and possibly alone, was really exciting. Almost wild camping but a bit more reassuring. We ended up staying in three different Quintas and the experience was something we will remember for a long time and I urge anyone coming to Portugal to do it. The only thing you really need is a toilet and a bed for the night of course!
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| Vineyards high up in the Douro Valley |
The process is simple, you buy the welcome pack by booking thorough Portugal Easycamp’s website, which is then handed to you when you arrive. The welcome pack has the same value as the cost of your stay, in our case the Quinta’s wines, but it could be farm produce, oils, jams or anything that is produced by the host. The magic is that you are usually one of only a few people there overnight and in beautiful surroundings. The scheme, created by Teresa and Bruno allows producers to get their goods to a wider audience and for us as campervan/motorhome owners to stay somewhere unique…our stays turned out to be even better than we had anticipated.
Vineyard #1 - Quinta do Monte Travesso
Leaving Porto we headed up the Douro valley, the scenery was spectacular as we have come to expect but the roads never cease to scare me. Alongside the river the road narrows and as we turned to go to the Alto Douro the road narrowed to a single lane with sheer drops down to the valley floor. The satnav told us to turn left so we dutifully did, however left was the actual vines, questioning whether it was right, we studied the map again and it definitely said to go this way. As we got to even more obviously a track IN THE VINES, we decided it wasn’t right and headed back to the road. After phoning the owner, he assured me that there was an asphalt road all the way to the Quinta, and there was.
Checking in was easy and we were handed a 20 euro bottle of wine, which was all we had paid to stay here, but we were a little concerned as there was only space for five vans, according to what is published on Portugal Easycamp’s site, and there were more than that already here. We needn’t have worried, not only did we get told we could stay the next night for nothing so that we could do a tasting the next day, of which you are under no obligation to do, we were told we could go right down into the vines, away from the other vans. We got electrics sorted and faced Daisy into the vines with her back to the other vans…we could pretend they were not there.
Cooking dinner amongst the vines and getting set up for the night, we couldn’t stop smiling. At this vineyard they have set a little table made of stone to sit and look across the valley, there is nothing but vines as far as the eye can see.
Being careful to remember this isn’t a campsite, we tried not to spread out and certainly not set up camp in the usual way, despite the temptation to stay here for ever.
As the sun set and we sat drinking a glass of wine, noticing the sounds of the birds and the crickets or possibly cicadas, we smiled again at each other delighted that we had made it to this particular Quinta; we couldn’t believe our luck to be here. Could it get any better? It seemed it could as we noticed a strange light on the mountain on the other side and soon realised that we were able to see a moonrise, only the second time in our travels anywhere in the world that we can remember seeing one.
A perfect end to the day, then total silence descended as we slept peacefully. The next morning like an excited child, I looked out the curtains and saw the sunrise and delighted in the fact that we had slept in the vines and more importantly we had another whole day and night here.
A tour with Edna the next afternoon and some wine tasting was as much as we needed to do today, although we set off for a walk through the vines we abandoned it after an hour, telling ourselves we really didn’t have to do lots of activity…plus it was really hot and my heels were still quite damaged. Under no obligation to buy anything, but we did, the tasting cost us 16 euros each as we tried the premium wines and we also tried the olive oil, so of course we bought some of that too.Then we chilled!
Leaving the next morning was so hard, the hospitality from the hosts was fantastic and we really enjoyed this experience, it made us all the more determined to fit in some more vineyards stays. Taking in the spectacular views on the way back down and trying to ignore the roads (although Pi did have to reverse back up one as we met a bus) we made our way across country to Aveiro, crossing one of the most beautiful motorways I think we have ever been on.
Vineyard #2 - Quinta Monteiro de Matos
This experience was very different, still lovely but we were completely alone, so alone in fact that no-one from the vineyard was there either. Not sure whether it was ok for us to be there, again I contacted the owner who informed us everyone was at lunch. So we sat in the sun, under the eaves of the building and had ourselves a mini picnic waiting for people to return. The owner showed up and handed us our wine…which had corks! The observant amongst you will remember we had a corkscrew disaster, so in a mix of gestures, one or two Portuguese words from Google and English, Pi managed to ask if we could borrow or buy a bottle opener. We still have it and don’t know if we should, but it is a great momento of our stay!
The next morning brought a deluge so everything was quickly packed away and we left before being able to say goodbye; finding a lovely cafe for breakfast in the mountain town of Minde, off the beaten track, made us feel better about the weather. We had enjoyed this stay but think we were spoilt by the first experience and the weather makes a difference, as not being outside in the vines enjoying the evening, we could have been anywhere. Still, we were pleased to add another great place to our list.
Vineyard #3 - Quinta da Almiara
We knew this was one place we wanted to stay before we left the UK. This vineyard is used as the cover photograph on Portugal Easycamp’s website and the building looks awesome. It is clearly a bigger operation and the huge silver wine vats outside the building suggest that it creates so much more wine than the other two we had stayed at, in fact they can contain three million litres. It is surrounded by 180 hectares of vines and is situated in the Lisbon wine region about 45 minutes north of the city, but you wouldn’t know it.
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| Our shadows on the building! |
It’s slogan is Family Wines and we got such a warm welcome. Again we were too late for a tasting that day but the lovely lady who greeted us said she would call if the people who had booked the last slot of the day didn’t turn up. We were quite happy to start on the welcome pack that we had been given. No facilities whatsoever, other than using the toilet when the building was open, and the most expensive stay at 25 euros, but this didn’t deter us. The building was fabulous, we were alone in the vines again and the wine was amazing. The pack contains wine in a box, but it is no ordinary wine in a box, even the presentation of this is lovely and very good value and you also get a special reserve, both reds in this case; as with the others, the wine comes to the value of your stay.
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| Daisy alone at Quinta da Almiara |
An incredibly peaceful night, looking at the stars and the twinkling lights of the villages on the surrounding hills. Nothing to do but relax and enjoy the great wines of this vineyard. In the morning we literally rushed in to buy more boxes…and at 9.30 am asked if we could have a sip of the white wines so we knew which to buy. This was no problem it seemed and we were soon being served large glasses, which we had to ask to be made smaller as Pi was driving and it was only 9.30! Couldn’t decide between the three they made, so bought some of all of them; there was no charge at all for the unofficial tasting we did. This is a wonderful place, the stay was perfect and the building lived up to our expectations…perhaps it is odd to be so easily pleased staying outside a building with no facilities, but you cannot get this experience everywhere and we are so pleased we discovered Portugal Easycamp.
One of the key things about this kind of ‘camping’ is it has allowed us to find out more about wines and grape varieties that we had never heard of before. We have been treated as guests and welcomed in such a friendly way, when really all we are doing is buying some wine! The scheme has a museum stay too we recently discovered, but alas we ran out of time to be able to do any more…Daisy also ran out of space for any more wine, although I must confess we are slowly relieving her of some of that burden.
Footnote:
Having now met Teresa and Bruno, who not only sent the sticker I asked for, handed us both t-shirts when we met up with them in Cascais. We had a coffee and a chat and in that short time we knew that these wonderful people will do anything to help, whatever your issue might be, not just related to your stays in their network. If you get a chance to do this, then you really must!
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