Casa de Mateus in Vila Real
On our way to the next wine estate we first visited Casa de Mateus in Vila Real. The baroque palace is depicted on the famous bottles of Mateus Rosé. It took some searching for a parking place. We drove down a street next to the domain where we left the car in a mini-parking (or that was what we thought).
Unfortunately there was no English guided tour when we arrived, so we decided to get our best Portuguese out because we absolutely wanted to see the inside of the building. Fortunately, the guide gave us a bit of explanation on the side. The family lives here 3 months a year and for the rest they were staying in Lisbon.
The garden, which covered 20 hectares, was very beautiful and diverse. According to us really worth a stop if you are in the neighbourhood. There was a picturesque cedar tunnel, a vegetable garden, a rose garden etc…
Medieval Amarante
In the afternoon we set course for the medieval town of Amarante. The town was located in the Minho region, known for the vinho verde wine (semi sparkling). The view of the church from the other side of the Tâmega river gave it a fairytale feeling.
We did a quick visit of the town and stopped for a drink while tasting the specialty of the area, suckling pig.
Monverde Hotel
The hotel “Monverde” belonged to a wine estate. It looked very promising! The setting was fantastic. Our room, which was very large and beautiful, was located in a building among the vineyards.
Other type of rooms had their private pool (they looked magnificent). Those rooms were quite costly so we decided that since we were going to visit the area, it was not really worth to have our own pool. The one from the hotel was more than sufficient (we were not even sure if we would be able to use it after all). A nice touch when we entered the room was the bottle of bubbles that was awaiting us.
We decided to eat in the hotel. The main building was very nicely furnished. Before going to diner, we first took an apéro with a view of the vineyards.
It was not possible to order the menu because we had to request it a day in advance (so that was the plan for the day after then !). So we chose some dishes à la carte. The food was delicious so it was a real good closure of a great day, we were very happy!
