Northern Portugal, the land of Vinho Verde – a hidden gem?

Warning: this is mainly a travel, not a wine, piece. 

The area 

For the third time in less than a decade, my extended family have holidayed extremely well in Northern Portugal, in and around the historic town of Ponte de Lima (PdL).  

The wider area is not particularly famous for anything in particular and is not obviously attractive to tourists, thereby making itself immediately attractive.  

PdL lies ess than an hour north of (the admittedly chaotic) Porto airport and roughly thirty minutes inland from the coast at Viana do Castelo (VdC), which is another elegant and historic town, famous for its doughnuts!  

On the opposite side of the river from the historic town centre is an expansive beach, stretching far to the south and full of wave-surfing kite boarders – notably, of all ages. In between the two, there’s a very confusing traffic system and a bridge designed by a man named Eiffel. 

Much as it sounds, PdL is a town with a bridge; an ancient bridge, illuminated by night, spanning the wide river Lima which, by day, offers kayaking, canoeing, paddle boarding and refreshing swimming. 

Food  

The town has a copious number of bars, cafés and restaurants. Portuguese cooking is possibly the antithesis of ‘fine dining’, which does not mean there are not delicious dishes to be had, it’s more a comment about the quantities. I have never experienced such generous portions anywhere, often with a double carb offering per plate. 

Value for money is extraordinary and pricewise, reminds me of France c. twenty to thirty years ago – three course daily menus with drinks and coffee all included for €12.50. Massive too.  

Steaks are huge, fishy stewy rice is huge, servings of octopus and giant prawns are huge, and of course, monster size portions of bacalhau (salt cod) everywhere. Portions of chips, other potato dishes, rice and salad are always enormous too, so order for two and there’s enough for four, every time. 

The iconic Bifana are particularly popular for a fast, protein and carbo snack. Pork cutlets are battered until thin, marinated in white wine, garlic and paprika and fried, or just plain deep fried, and served with a spicy sauce in a soft bread roll.  

It would appear they are particularly favoured on Saturday mornings by the locals, relatively early, chugged down with plenty of some spritzy (white) Vinho Verde. 

There is some very good dining to be had also, particularly at A Carvalheira, which serves very fine food, in plentiful quantities, in sumptuously comfortable surroundings. There’s no outside seating here, so it’s very easyto find yourself slipping into an air-conditioned cocoon with a splendid, very affordable wine list to match their high-quality food. I really enjoyed the roast kid (goat variety, not a child).  

For more traditional Portuguese fayre we returned to Muralha, a restaurant in the old part of the town under a rampart. A huge lunch, with prawns, stews, steaks, the occasional octopus, with lashings of rosé, and a rather curious brown beer, worked out at €20 a head. In an act of kindness, the restaurant refused to accept an order for their tripe-based stew from an inexperienced youngster.  

Tarts and doughnuts 

It is worth going to Portugal just for their tarts and doughnuts, if that’s tour thing. The most famous example is the Pastel da Nata, an egg custard tart wrapped in sweet and particularly flaky pastry, but all the bakeries and their offerings are of an impressively high standard. 

In CdV, there’s a bakery, Pasteleria-Confeitaria Manuel Natário, so famous for its daily doughnut drops, at 11.30 and 16.30, that queues start forming well over an hour in advance. More formally known as ‘bolas de Berlim’ (Portugal’s version of the Berliner doughnut), the pasteleria produces one thousand of these perfect specimens a day! People happily stand in line, under the beating sun, just for the chance to bury their chollers into just one of the thousand soft, sugary, delicious balls of doughy joy.  

Luckily for me, there’s a beautiful old wine shop opposite the bakery to while away some time while your doughnut-wallah waits in line.  

The wine 

For years, decades perhaps, I thought Vinho Verde (VV) was a white wine, not a DOC (Denominação de Origem Controlada), light green in colour, fresh and zesty with a little spritz. And very much a holiday wine – although vast quantities were consumed at Fernando’s in Macau back in the day. After all, Hong Kong residents couldn’t spend every weekend on the corporate junk trip – could they?  

The DOC covers nine sub-regions and produces white, rosé and red wines with most of it (I think!) destined for early and refreshing drinking.  

Estimates vary but there are c.13,000 wine producers, maybe 30,000 grape growers, and 400 bottling facilities in the region.  

Our family-friendly ‘house’ white and rosé for the holiday was setting us back a very friendly €2.79 a bottle at the local Intermarché. Most of it was drunk ‘à la piscine’ (with ice) and it did the job very nicely indeed.  

It is little wonder Portugal is the largest wine consuming country in Europe! 

If you order wine by the glass, it’s always a generous pour, no measly measuring here, and normally sets you back €2.50 for the good stuff, VV for less.  

It was definitely a family holiday rather than a wine trip, so research was limited. Very generally, the whites were very acceptable and in some cases, far better than expectations. With it being the height of summer, the reds felt a little heavy to deal with, until under the air-conditioning.  

Cedro do Noval ’22, a rich blend from the famous Quinta do Noval, had a lot of upfront appeal but with plenty of stuffing too.  

The climate and the land 

The weather was perfect this time round, topping out at 31/32 °C, with cool mornings and nights, and the occasional extra layer in the evenings. A few years back we weren’t so lucky, it pissed it down.  

There were absolutely no signs of drought, in fact it was verde, verde, verde everywhere, with small holdings at every turn. As well as countless vines, there are fruit trees everywhere. Oversized kiwis caused great excitement.  

It is clearly very fertile but most of the rainfall is over the winter months.  

History. The Treaty of Windsor, 1386. 

Not a lot of people know this. At least I didn’t.  

In what is known as the longest international treaty in history, England and Portugal shook hands on a deal, ratified in Windsor, in 1386. As well as offering each other strategic support and security, the people of the two countries were free to come and go, and trade with each other, as they pleased. 

Over time, the Portuguese gave us wine, cork, fruit, olive oil and other agricultural products whilst the British gave them textiles, wool and cloth, industrial and heavy goods and, wait for it – salted cod!  

Yes, that’s correct, we used to sell it to them. It’s fair to say that with consumption of 20% of the global market, and each member of the population on average consuming thirty-five kilos of salted cod each year, they are the undisputed world champions and have cornered the market!  

Round up 

Northern Portugal, this year, offered a perfect climate whilst a lot of Europe was just too darn hot. There was plenty of sunshine but not too hot to play hours of tennis, go for walks and kayak down the river.  

It is very laid back, uncrowded but busy, with decent supermarkets, some great cafés, bars and restaurants. The people too are incredibly friendly, and unstinting in their baking activities.

In this climate changing world, this verdant corner of Europe is becoming a more and more desirable option.

Too much time there, however, might result in Portugal’s main health problems, namely  cardiovascular disease and lower back pain. I blame those bloody doughnuts.

Miles Davis, wishing he was back there, Thursday 20th August 2026.