Portuguese wine has been a revelation to me over the last few years. I’d always poo pooed it with memories of overly sweet, slightly fizzy vinho verde produced from stubby Mateus bottles – albeit the bottles did come in handy to make artful candlestick holders!

Luckily for me our local wine shop (Reserve in Didsbury) always ensures that I “try something different” and never seems to get it wrong. So, when I was offered a Portuguese white from the Duoro valley I was amazed to find it was rather good and I haven’t looked back since!  Wanting to discover more about the wines of Portugal, on our recent trip to Portugal (after discovering an alternative Algarve – read about how you do that here) Julian and I headed north to the central Alentejo region.  But to our delight we discovered more than just wonderful wineries.