Douro Tourism: a unique river and a unique wine
Over the work done by the River Douro, man's toil transformed the schist mountains in soil and walls, in a collective effort of many cultures: an epic story.
Because of all this and much more, the Douro is the perfect place for leisure activities, for the sheer enjoyment of the most refined of worldly pleasures. Long walks and cruises in the River Douro are activities chosen today by more and more tourists, that flock to the North of Portugal from the most faraway places.
Douro - first wine-growing region in the world
Protected from the wet winds of the Atlantic by the mountain ridges of Marão and Montemuro, the wine-producing region of the Douro, first delimited and regulated in 1756, the oldest wine-growing regulamentation in the world, lies to the Northeast of Portugal, between Barqueiros and Mazouco, in the spanish border. There, wines of exceptional quality are born.
Landscape of the Douro
Douro Wines
The Douro region spreads today over more than 600.000 acres, but the vineyard occupies only about 100.000 acres in the deep and nested basins of the river Douro and its tributaries: Corgo, Torto, Pinhão, Tua, Côa, among others. The Douro is divided in three sub-regions, Baixo-Corgo to the West, Cima-Corgo in the center and Alto Douro to the East, each of them with diversified mesoclimatic expressions, but always with cold winters and hot and dry summers.
Vineyard in the Douro
The conjugation of these factors, together with the excellence of the stocks of grapes used, is decisive in the quality and authenticity of the Douro wines, which are really no more than a manifestation of the harmonious union between soil, climate, love and man's ingenuity.
But the Douro is not only vineyards, wine, almonds and olive oil, it is also their people, the wine growers who made history and created stories. It is the farms, welcoming and bucolic places, still protected from everything on the outside.
Make your online reservation now in the boutique hotel Casa da Calçada.
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