2-3 days discovering Portugal’s Dao wine region
The sheep farm and vineyards at Quinta Madre de Água - Hotel Serra da Estrela - Source: Winekeller
Portugueses Dao wines are some of the finest in Portugal - spend 2-3 days discovering the beautiful, rural Dao wine region
The Dão wine region is probably one of the least visited by wine tourists, simply because it’s not very well known. Not only are Portuguese Dão wines superb, Dão is a beautiful, rural and very traditional part of Portugal. We had the opportunity to travel there after harvest time - early November 2021 - and discover the countryside, the vineyards, the wines, the food and 2 of the region’s top winemakers.
Read on to see how we got on and what we discovered!
Our Dão wine tour route
We flew into Porto international airport, where we hired a car and headed first for the historic city of Coimbra, where we joined our son for a couple of days. We hadn’t visited Coimbra before and were really keen to explore this famous university city (see later) as well as the Dão wine region.
Our Dão wine tour took us first to the wine town of Mortágua, just inside and to the west of the Dão wine region, where we visited one of the top Dão estates, Boas Quintas. From there we drove into the foothills of the beautiful Estrela mountains to spend the night in another of the recommended hotels in the book ‘Portugal - Wine & Lifestyle, an idea by Rita Soares’, detailing over 20 amazing wine & lifestyle hotel experiences in Portugal. (Our aim is to work our way through this beautiful book!). This time we stayed a night in the amazing ‘Quinta Madre de Água – Hotel Serra da Estrela’ - wow what an experience!
From here we travelled further into the Estrela Mountains and spent a fabulous morning with another top Dão winemaker, Quinta dos Roques. We then paid a visit to the region’s capital Viseu before heading back towards Coimbra, but not before spending a night at the incredible Bussaco Palace Hotel and exploring the beautiful Bussaco (Buçaco) Forest.
The beautiful scenery at the Boas Quintas estate and winery, just outside Mortágua - Source: Winekeller
Day 1 The wine town of Mortágua and a visit to Boas Quintas winery
Before our Dão wine tour we knew a little about Dão wines and the mountainous Dão region, but we were unprepared for how much we would love the wines and the stunning scenery. Just 30 minutes out of Coimbra we were in the most rural and scenic countryside, rolling, green hills, forests and vineyards, with mountains always in the background.
The Mortágua area in the west of Dão produces very well-balanced wines and is known locally as the ‘Portuguese Burgundy’. This is due mainly to the special micro-climate here, creating the perfect vine growing conditions, with heat in the afternoon and cool nights - no frost but quite foggy mornings. This makes the air quite humid in this particular part of Dão.
Visit to Boas Quintas winery
Boas Quintas produces premium wines from its 12 hectares of vines in Dão and has a fabulous, state-of-the-art winery at its Quinta da Giesta estate in Mortágua, which was opened in 2015. They harvest by hand, are vegan certified and are fully committed to integrating Biodiversity into their business and how they manage and look after the vineyards.
Everything about Boas Quintas feels sleek, professional and successful. 85% of wines are exported and in the UK, are available through The Wine Society. Their wines are also stocked by both Aldi and Lidl.
Boas Quinta wines
In addition to growing their own grapes for their wines, Boas Quintas buys in other grapes from the Dão region to support their range of entry-level and premium Dão wines. Additionally they have a wider portfolio of wines from other Portuguese wine regions, including Douro, Alentejo and Setúbal. All of the wines are either bottled or made at the Boas Quintas winery at Quinta da Giesta. In 2019, 1 million bottles were produced with just 20% of these based on their own farmed grapes.
Boas Quintas co-owner and winemaker, Nuno Cancela de Abreu, was born into a farming family, with roots in Dão. He pursued a career in winemaking and established Boas Quintas in 1991. He is passionate about sustainability and respecting the unique identity of each terroir. He was recognised as “Winemaker of the Year 2016” by Aníbal Coutinho.
Boas Quintas red wines are based on Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Jaen and Alfrocheiro grape varieties and white wines are mainly Encruzado.
Boas Quinta wine tourism
Boas Quintas offers an excellent range of wine tours to suit every wine tourist.
You can book your preferred tasting and you will also get a tour of the Quinta da Giesta estate and winery in Mortágua.
We enjoyed a really comprehensive and interesting wine tour, followed by a ‘My Wine Experience’ where we got to blend our own wine, bottle it and produce the label! This is a unique and really authentic experience and gives you a real insight into winemaking! Our blend was made up of 50% Touriga Nacional, 30% Tinta Roriz and 20% Alfrocheiro (oaked). We were very pleased with the result!!
Where to eat in Mortágua
After our visit to Boas Quintas - see below - we drove into the centre of Mortágua to get some lunch. Our guide had recommended a lovely local, family restaurant called Porta 22 and we weren’t disappointed!
We sat in the pretty courtyard and asked for ‘something traditional’ - as there was no English menu and little English was spoken, we were definitely in the hands of our waiter! We started with octopus salad, then enjoyed salted cod and roasted goat. The portions were huge and it was all delicious. Our meal demonstrated why the local wines are perfectly matched to the hearty, robust local food!
Barragem da Aguieira (Aguieira Dam)
After our huge lunch we spent a relaxing hour at the beautiful Barragem da Aguieira (Aguieira Dam) just outside Mortágua. Completed in 1981, it is one of Portugal’s best known dams. The concrete, multiple arch dam stands at almost 90m high over the Mondego River. The beautiful reservoir attracts many tourists each year and is popular for walkers and water-sports enthusiasts alike.
We then drove on to the foothills of the beautiful Estrela Mountains and our overnight hotel.
The reservoir at Barragem de Aguieira - Aguieira Dam - Source: Winekeller
Our overnight stay at Quinta Madre de Água – Hotel Serra da Estrela
The Madre de Água rural hotel is located in the foothills of the Serra da Estrela mountains in a place called Vinhó, just outside the town of Gouveia. This isn’t just a hotel - it offers guests the opportunity to experience first hand living in the Estrela Mountains.
It’s a rural retreat in every sense of the word. The beautifully comfortable hotel stands in the middle of vineyards, olive groves, vegetable crops, fruit trees, a sheep farm, a horse stud and equestrian area and wonderful open spaces and kennels for stray dogs to live an amazing life. The estate consists of four farms that were developed and combined into this one incredible experience visitors and guests can enjoy.
Co-owners Maria de Lurdes Perfeito and Luís Gonçalves are passionate about delivering a sophisticated hotel experience, combining modern comfort with the authentic, rural environment. The whole estate is built on love and respect for both nature and animals and this shines through everwhere.
The Hotel Madre de Água
The hotel is a simple granite structure, fitting in perfectly with the granite buildings so common in Dão. There are just 10 rooms in this delightful, rural hotel and they are furnished in a contemporary but relaxed, comfortable style. As soon as you step foot in the hotel you feel yourself relaxing! There is a lovely lounge area where you can chill and an impressive vaulted-ceiling, airy restaurant.
We had a deliciously light dinner in the hotel, after our huge lunch and enjoyed a wonderfully fresh salad and cheese. Our highlight though was the breakfast - fresh local fruits and breads, of course local cheeses and cold meats and the most wonderful home-made jams!
The emphasis here is on regional dishes made with the freshest and most natural of ingredients, beautifully prepared and served.
Madre de Água farm tour
All guests can enjoy a guided tour around the farms, which we thoroughly enjoyed! We got to see the horses and the beautiful dogs that have been saved and offered a wonderful life here, including the amazing local mountain dogs. We walked through the vineyards and fruit and olive trees and then the highlight, we got to see the large herd of prized, native-breed sheep being milked!
Queijaria Madre de Água - the Cheese Dairy
After we had seen ewes being milked, we went on to the ‘Queijaria’- the cheese dairy, where we were able to watch the famous Serra da Estrela cheese being made! Madre de Água has a top reputation for the quality of its sheep and its local Estrela cheeses.
Quinta Madre de Água wines
Quinta Madre de Água - Serra de Estrela has 16 acres of vineyards at an altitude of 600m, with some of the vines being up to 40 years old. The red, white and rosé wines are based on a wide range of local and international grape varieties.
A new state-of-the-art winery and cellar are being built on the estate and new wine tourism activities and events will be available.
We had the most delightful stay at Madre De Água and really recommend you visit. If you enjoy nature, animals, great food and wine and really authentic experiences then you would love it! We felt we had experienced the real Portugal here and can’t wait to go back one day.
Day 2 Visit to Quinta dos Roques, Viseu and the Bussaco Forest and National Park
Quinta dos Roques is a 3rd generation family-owned winery, located in the small hamlet of Abrunhosa do Mato at an altitude of 450m in the foothills of the beautiful Serra da Estrela mountains. Quinta dos Roques has built an excellent reputation for top quality, elegant and characterful Dão wines. The family is also known for leading the way in terms of innovation in Dão winemaking.
The family farms a patchwork quilt of vineyards here, totalling some 35 hectares but they also own another estate in Serra da Estrela at 600m altitude, Quinta das Maias, which brings the total number of hectares under vine to 60.
We met with owner José Lourenço who spent a couple of hours showing us around the estate and winery.
Quinta dos Roques wines - blends and single varietals
Approximately 75% of the wines produced are red and 25% white, mainly blends as in the other Portuguese wine regions, but also, single varietals, especially red Touriga nacional and white Encruzado. A mixture of oak and stainless steel is used to age the wines and give them a distinctive flavour and aroma.
José’s grandfather who started Quinta dos Roques and also his father, were very much pioneers in pushing the boundaries of Dão wines. José’s grandfather specialised in planting vineyards with a mix of grapes to create ‘field blends’ rather than blends created in the winery and José’s father was behind a lot of the new thinking about single varietals in Portugal. He started to create single varietal wines in the 1990s as soon as the laws opened the door to do this in Dão.
Approximately 85% of the wine production is exported today, with Canada, Japan and Norway being the largest markets for Quinta dos Roques. This is thanks to José’s grandfather who had the foresight and contacts to develop the lucrative export market in the early days.
Quinta dos Roques wines are not certified organic, as the patchwork quilt of vineyards makes this almost impossible to achieve, however the family strives to produce low-sulphite wines and their Quinta das Maias vineyards are indeed certified organic.
Quinta dos Roques winery
The family have recently completed the building of a new, second winery on the estate and can manage the total production process, including bottling, for both Quinta dos Roques wines and Quinta das Maias wines, from here.
Quinta dos Roques and wine tourism
There is a fabulous tasting room on the Quinta dos Roques estate and the family is very much focused on welcoming visitors for wine tastings and vineyard and winery tours. Here is the current range of wine tours and tastings. Lunch and dinner can also be arranged.
The family is also in the process of renovating buildings on the Quinta das Maias estate to create a boutique hotel, which will offer visitors the opportunity to stay a couple of days and explore the beautiful Serra da Estrela. We can’t wait for this to be ready!
Visit Viseu - Dão’s capital
Following our visit to Quinta dos Roques we made our way to the Dão capital, Viseu and we weren’t disappointed.
We made our way on foot uphill to the historic centre of the city, following signs for the Cathedral. The beautiful twin-towered, 13th century cathedral stands proudly in the main square, flanked by the Misericórdia Church and next to it the Grão Vasco Museum. You really feel like you’ve been transported back in time here in the centre of this stunning square, surrounded by these beautiful, historic buildings.
We then spent an hour strolling through the small streets and alleyways of the historic centre, wandering through the traditional shops and taking time for a much-needed coffee!
You can also visit the Solar do Dão in Viseu, the headquarters of the Regional Wine Commission, to learn more about Dão wines!
Overnight stay in the Bussaco Palace Hotel, in the Bussaco National Forest
Following our quick stop in Viseu, we headed back in the direction of Coimbra and onto the final stop on our Dão wine tour - the incredible Bussaco Palace Hotel in the centre of the Bussaco National Forest.
The Bussaco Palace Hotel
The only way to really describe the Bussaco Palace Hotel is a fairy-tale, gothic, romantic masterpiece of architecture and design!
Built for the last King of Portugal in 1885, the Bussaco Palace is steeped in history and is full of antique furnishings and lavish decorations, including a phenomenal, vaulted stairway with the most amazing blue, Portuguese wall tiles. The external architecture is a crazy, ‘eclectic’ mix of turrets, pinnacles, gargoyles and pillars, reflecting the desire of the architect to create a neo-gothic fantasy palace!
The Bussaco Palace was converted into a hotel in 1917 and since then has hosted royalty and heads of state and is considered one of the world’s most beautiful and historic hotels - and one of the ‘1000 places to see before you die’!
We spent an hour in the huge hotel lounge and bar area which houses an incredible collection of paintings and ancient furnishings, before going into the very formal, richly decorated restaurant for dinner. Like everything else in the hotel, the dining experience was like stepping back into history, with the service very formal and traditional! The Portuguese cuisine was excellent and we really appreciated the incredible wine list, with some of the local Buçaco wines dating back to the 1940s!
The Bussaco Palace was also designed to be a ‘cathedral of wine’ to showcase the local wines and Buçaco wines have been produced here for generations. We opted however to try an Encruzado wine from Quinta dos Roques!
We loved staying in this very special and historic hotel, but if you love your modern conveniences, a word of caution! Our room was perfectly fine, but the hotel rooms do need a bit of attention and renovation! Some things can't be helped, like creaking floorboards, due to the age of the building, but the bathroom facilities, the bed, the electrics and WiFi were a little, shall we say, behind the times!
The Bussaco National Forest
After a lovely buffet breakfast, we checked out and spent the morning exploring the stunning forest and woodland surrounding the hotel.
The Bussaco Palace Hotel is situated right in the centre of one of Portugal’s most beautiful and tranquil forests, Buçaco - or in English Bussaco - Forest, dating back to the 17th century and famed for its incredible range of exotic trees and rare flora collected from all over the world by Portuguese Navigators. The forest’s 105 hectares are home to priceless heritage, with not just natural and botanical significance, but also historical, cultural, architectural and military significance.
We purchased a map in the gift shop and followed one of the walking trails through the stunning forest and to the Coimbra Gate, one of the several ‘miradouros’ (viewpoints), giving fabulous views over the surrounding countryside. The forest is 40km away from the Atlantic and on a mountain plateau in the south-west of the Bussaco mountain range, so the views are stunning and the air is wonderfully clear.
After a wonderfully relaxing walk through this enchanted forest we took to the road again for the short drive back to Coimbra
The beautiful view from Coimbra Gate in Bussaco National Forest - Source: Winekeller
Visit Coimbra and its historic university
Coimbra is one of Portugal’s most historic cities and home to one of Europe’s oldest universities and is classified as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Other major sites include the beautiful cathedral, built in the 1100s and Santa Cruz Monastery, dating from the 12th century.
The historic city centre is built on a hill overlooking the River Mondego and the university complex is at the city’s highest point. We spent a delightful afternoon strolling the streets and wandering up to the university where we were rewarded with stunning views!
Coimbra University was founded in 1290 and was a former Royal Palace. Its magnificent gold-coloured library is recognised as one of the world’s finest libraries and houses some 40,000 books. It was a gift from King João V, who was one of Europe’s most wealthy monarchs.
Today more than 20,000 students from over 80 countries study at Coimbra University and it is the city’s history as well as its modern-day student life which give this city its amazing atmosphere. We really enjoyed our time in Coimbra and would highly recommend it!
We stayed at the centrally located ‘Tivoli Hotel’, which was a great base to explore from. For more information about what to do in Coimbra, see here.
See our video about exploring the Dão region below:
Conclusion and personal highlights
If you want to discover the real Portugal and get off the beaten track, then a wine tour in the beautiful Dão wine region could be for you! We were bowled over by the scenery, the countryside, the sights, the food and wine and also the people.
Coimbra was a real discovery - it’s a wonderful Portuguese city, with so much history and atmosphere - and we will certainly be going back to explore more in the Serra da Estrela mountains.
We hope we’ve inspired you to explore a bit more widely in Portugal and to discover some amazing new Dão wines and the stunning Dão region, which has so much to offer both the wine enthusiast and the wine tourist!
