Ten Wines, Lunch Cooked Over Fire, and a Boat With Nobody Else On It

Ten hours, eight guests, a Mercedes van, and three things that separate this from the other Douro days at this price.

The first is the count. Ten wines across the day, and not ten of the same thing: DOC Douro table wines, port, Moscatel, Late Bottled Vintage and a Vintage. LBV spends four to six years in wood and is ready when you open it; Vintage comes from a declared harvest, is bottled after two years and then does its real work in glass for decades. Tasting them in the same afternoon is the only way the difference lands.

The second is lunch. It happens at a family winery, cooked over an open fire, and is matched to the wines the cellar makes rather than ordered off a menu.

The third is the boat. The hour on the river at Pinhão is on a boat the operator keeps for its own guests, with a guide and drinks on board, instead of a scheduled cruise shared with everyone else who arrived that afternoon.

The first estate is family-owned and more than a century old, working traditionally, and you taste its olive oil alongside the wine. There are viewpoint stops for photographs, a short walk through Pinhão itself, and the N222 on the way through.

Pick-up and drop-off at your hotel in central Porto is optional; otherwise you meet in front of Teatro Sá da Bandeira, with the guide's contact and departure time sent the day before. Bottled water included. Menus for vegetarian, pescatarian and allergy requirements are available. Guided in English, up to eight per booking.