Quinta da Curva
River-bend quintaPinhão · Douro
Vindima season · long table Thursdays & Saturdays
Five rooms · on the schist terraces above the Douro
A river-bend quinta, where the fog lifts off the terraces first.
Four kilometres upstream of Pinhão, on the north bank — the Linha do Douro railway below, the schist terraces above, and a quinta that has been in the same family since 1907.
WherePinhão · 4 km upstream
BankNorth side · schist
RoomsFive, named for terraces
SeasonMar – Nov · vindima Sept
StayTwo nights, minimum
Section one · the place, first
The place decides everything else.
A quinta is the building, the terraces and the family at the same time. Here, the building is small, the terraces are old, and the family has been here for three generations.
The Douro turns hard at Pinhão and runs back on itself for almost two kilometres before turning again — that bend is the name on our gate. The quinta sits on the north bank, four kilometres upstream, on a fold of schist (xisto) terrace that catches the first sun and loses the fog last.
The terraces were built by hand, mostly between 1860 and 1910, when the Douro Wine Region was first properly terraced under the Marquês de Pombal. The walls are dry-stacked schist; the soil is broken schist too. We farm fifteen hectares — nine of vines (Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Tinta Roriz, Viosinho), one of olive, the rest almond, fig and the wood at the top of the ridge.
There is no village here. The nearest is Pinhão, on the railway, twenty minutes down a switchback lane. We meet guests at the station with the old Land Rover, or you come up by car on the N222, which follows the river south toward Peso da Régua and has been called one of the more beautiful roads in the country.
Below the quinta, the Linha do Douro railway runs along the river bank. The two-hour twenty-minute ride from Porto São Bento up to Pinhão is, by most reckonings, one of the most beautiful train journeys in Europe. The station at Pinhão is lined with blue-and-white azulejo tiles showing the river and the harvest — one of the small, unembarrassed reasons to come this way.
2001UNESCO
Alto Douro Vinhateiro
15ha
Quinta, in terraces
02:20hr
Porto → Pinhão by rail
1907·
Year the lagar was cut
Section two · five rooms, named for the terraces
Five rooms, five terraces, the same river below.
Each room is named after the terrace it opens onto — Curva, Xisto, Lagar, Oliveira, Amendoeira. We keep the rooms ourselves and we keep them small.
-
01
Curva — the bend
From €210 / night- View
- River bend, west
- Bed
- King, linen
- For
- Two adults
- Includes
- Breakfast & tasting
The room above the bend itself. The window is the river — the curve sits framed in the morning, and at night the lights of Pinhão slide along the water like a slow lantern.
-
02
Xisto — the schist wall
From €195 / night- View
- Schist terrace
- Bed
- Queen, linen
- For
- Two adults
- Includes
- Breakfast & tasting
A wall of dry-stacked schist runs the length of the room; the stones were laid by hand in 1907 and they hold the night's cool in summer and the warmth of the wood stove in winter.
-
03
Lagar — the press house
From €185 / night- View
- Inner courtyard
- Bed
- Queen, can split
- For
- One or two adults
- Includes
- Breakfast & tasting
Above the old granite lagar where the family still treads grapes in September. In harvest weeks you wake to the smell of crushed Touriga drifting through the floorboards.
-
04
Oliveira — the olive
From €175 / night- View
- Olive grove, east
- Bed
- Queen, linen
- For
- Two adults
- Includes
- Breakfast & tasting
Faces east over the old olive grove and the morning sun. The room is the quietest of the five — you hear the birds before the breakfast bell.
-
05
Amendoeira — the almond
From €165 / night- View
- Almond orchard, south
- Bed
- Queen, linen
- For
- One or two adults
- Includes
- Breakfast & tasting
A small, top-floor room under the eaves, with the almond orchard just outside the window. In February the blossom comes in through the door if you leave it open.
Section three · the hours of a Douro day
A day, told by the light on the terraces.
The river valley makes its own weather. In autumn the fog sits low over the water until ten; by lunch the terraces are warm; by sundown the whole valley is a slow colour-shift from gold to blue.
07:00
Fog
Coffee on the terrace above the lagar. The fog is still in the river; the schist walls hold the night's cool. The first train to Pinhão passes, unseen, below.
09:00
Walk
A slow loop through the terraces — the schist, the Touriga Nacional, the old olive grove, the almond orchard at the top of the ridge. About ninety minutes at an unhurried pace.
13:00
Long table
One sitting, one table, Thursdays and Saturdays during the season. What is good from the garden, the river, the cellar and the wood oven. Wine from our barrels and our bottles.
19:30
Pool
The pool above the bend, the river below it. A glass of our Viosinho if it has been a warm afternoon; otherwise just the light on the water and the slow Pinhão–Peso train, the last one of the day.
Section four · the table, on Thursdays and Saturdays
One long table. Six courses, all from the quinta or the next valley over.
What we set down depends on what is good that week — the garden, the river, the bakery at Pinhão, the cheese maker on the road to Sabrosa. The list below is the shape of it, not the literal menu.
The Thursday and Saturday table
One sitting at half past one — one table, ten seats, four courses from the quinta, wine by the glass included. We sit down together, we eat slowly, we walk the garden after. The table is the reason most of our guests come.
€48
per guest · wine included
Section five · the Linha do Douro
Come up the river, by the train that has run along it since 1881.
The Douro line leaves Porto São Bento and runs east along the south bank of the river for two hours and twenty minutes, before crossing to the north bank at Pinhão. It is one of the more quietly beautiful train rides in Europe.
01 Porto São Bento
Depart · ~07:30
The ticket hall is lined with azulejo tiles — twenty thousand of them, painted by Jorge Colaço between 1905 and 1916. Allow an hour before your train.
02 Régua
~01:45
The line turns hard and the valley opens out. This is the town where the Douro DOC begins to make sense on a map.
03 Pinhão
Arrive · ~09:50
We meet you on the platform by the azulejo wall. Bring what you want for the next two nights; we have everything else.
04 Curva
+20 minutes, by us
Up the switchback lane to the gate — and the river bend, and the terraces, and the fog already lifting off the schist.
Pinhão station — a small, tile-faced welcome
The station at Pinhão is a single platform under a wrought-iron canopy, faced with twenty-four panels of azulejo tiles. They were painted in 1937 by the artist António Alves Cardoso, and they show the river, the terraces, the harvest, and the lagar — the four things you came here for.
- Trains / dayEight (CP regional)
- From Porto~02:20 by CP regional
- From Lisbon~04:00 by IC + connection at Régua
- PickupWe meet every train, by arrangement
Section six · the other way up
Or come up by road, on the N222 along the river.
The N222 is the old river road between Pinhão and Peso da Régua, and the stretch between the two towns has been called one of the more beautiful drives in the country.
01 By train
Porto → Pinhão on the Linha do Douro.
The two-hour twenty-minute ride along the river is the way most of our guests arrive. We meet every train at the platform — by arrangement, in the old Land Rover.
02 By car (N222)
The river road from Peso da Régua to Pinhão.
Twenty-seven kilometres, two hairpins per kilometre, one quinta at the end. Allow an hour and a quarter from Régua. Park in the lower courtyard; you will not need the car again until you leave.
03 Pickup & drop-off
From Pinhão station, by us.
Free, with any stay of two nights or more. Tell us your train number when you write — we will be on the platform with a sign in your name.
Section seven · writing to us
If the dates fit, write to us.
Tell us who is coming, how long you would like to stay, and whether you would like the Thursday or Saturday table. We answer within a day, often the same evening.
Like what you see? Write to us — we’ll build one for your place.
The address
Quinta da Curva
Lugar do Cabo, Curva do Pinhão
5085 Pinhão, Alijó
Portugal
The coordinates
41°11′N · 7°33′W
Four kilometres north of the river, on the schist terrace above the bend. The gate is marked Quinta da Curva.
Phone · in season
Reception in the kitchen, between the breakfasts and the lunches. We pick up; if we cannot, leave a message and we will call back.