Friday, March 7, 2014

Portugal Travel Guide

By Salma Abdelnour, Charles Antin Restaurants pouring 80 types of gin, colonial-mansions-turned-hotels and wineries making delicious bottles with obscure grapes. Portugal Travel Guide F&W's Portugal travel guide includes Villa Extramuros in Alentejo. Photo courtesy of Villa Extramuros

Spanish-born owner Luis Carballo offers more than 80 different gins (on their own or with tonic), paired with ingredient-driven dishes like codfish salad with sea urchin caviar. tabernamoderna.com

Chef Nuno Bandeira de Lima serves affordable, tradition-tweaking dishes (such as slow-cooked cod with honey and almonds) in a century-old palace turned design-conscious hostel. thedecadente.pt

Chef Ricardo Costa has earned a Michelin star for his refined cooking here. The 1,000-plus-bottle wine list has an encyclopedic selection of great wines from Portugal. the-yeatman-hotel.com

A new venture from revered chef Pedro Lemos, this Portuguese tapas spot has an ambitious by-the-glass list of local wines. clerigos.net

These five minimalist rooms have views of olive groves, oak-tree forests and castle-topped hills. The on-call cook prepares local ingredients like cod. Doubles from $172; villaextramuros.com

This hotel has modern lines, but the food (grilled cuttlefish) is traditional, and the goat-milk spa treatment is inspired by Cleopatra. Doubles from $245; carmosboutiquehotel.com

Now a stunning boutique hotel, this 18th-century mansion has period details like antique copper fireplaces and blue-and-white tiles. Doubles from $124; palacio-ramalhete.com

Álvaro Castro makes a range of superb Dão wines (plus a Dão-Douro wine that he makes with Niepoort). The most celebrated is from Quinta da Pellada, where grapes have been grown since the 1500s. Tastings by appointment; quintadapellada.com

Pato, one of the brightest young winemaking talents in Portugal, produces complex, graceful wines with local Bairrada varieties like Baga and Bical. Visitors to her small, white-walled winery in Amoreira de Gândara should be sure to try her top red, Nossa. Tastings by appointment; filipapato.net

The owner of this estate north of Lisbon is longtime friends with star French winemaker Michel Chapoutier—a helpful connection, since the focus here is on Rhône Valley varieties like Syrah and Viognier as well as traditional Portuguese grapes. quintadomontedoiro.com

After a complete renovation, Graham's historic port lodge reopened to the public this past spring. Tours wind through more than 3,500 casks, some with wine dating back to the 1800s; the new Vinum restaurant has stunning views of the Douro River. grahamsportlodge.com

Related Articles

View the original article here

No comments:

Post a Comment