How to drink uncommonly great wine in Estremoz, Portugal

If you’re like me and you’ll travel just about anywhere, you’ll want to know how to drink uncommonly great wine in Estremoz, Portugal.

Here’s the thing… when you’re traveling, you never really know what you’ll be doing. You can plan all you want, research until your eyes fall out, and talk to as many people as you can find.

YET in the end, sometimes being open to spur-of-the-moment experiences can be better than all the planning in the world.

Getting there

It takes a bit of effort to get to Estremoz (and the restaurant I talk about a little bit later in this article), but if you’re in Portugal and are anywhere near Estremoz, it’s worth it.

Estremoz is about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Lisbon or a four to five-hour drive from Pinhão in the Douro Valley. I was lucky enough to drive down from Pinhão and view some incredible scenery along the way. Castles, vineyards, oak cork forests, cattle, and mountains – you get it all in that trip (I strongly recommend taking the secondary roads because, although the super-highway system in Portugal is amazing, you’ll see a lot more from the country roads).

Staying in Estremoz

Because tourism is a big deal in Estremoz, there are lots of places to stay. However, when I’m there, I love staying at the Pousada at the top of the hill. The view from the top is amazing and the place has great atmosphere!

You can see it from miles away no matter where you’re coming from. Pousadas are usually castles, convents or monasteries that have been converted into (surprisingly inexpensive!) hotels. You feel like you’ve stepped back into time when you stay in one of them.

Let’s get to the wine (and the food!)

I love Portuguese wine and food. Every time I visit Portugal, I’m blown away by how good the wine is that Portuguese wine-makers make (in all the different regions from north to south). I also love the food the restaurants serve – from rustic at a local bistro to a full-on amazing food experience in a fun restaurant.

I had met the wine-maker of Howard’s Folly purely by chance at a bistro. Luckily for us, he and his team invited us to visit the restaurant that evening – so we went! So I’m sure you’re asking – what’s Howard’s Folly? It’s a bar, it’s a restaurant, it’s an art museum, it’s a winery! And most of all… it’s FUN!!! Wow! And… it’s in Estremoz in the Alentejo region of Portugal.

And yes, Howard’s Folly is a fun restaurant. We had the wine-pairing menu and every course was excellent! The food and the wine were amazing and I would highly recommend that anyone visiting Estremoz and who loves wine visit the restaurant.

I was able to taste a number of wines and this one was one of my favourites. The wine is made from 50% Field Blend, 25% Alicante Bouschet, 20% Aragonez, 5% Trincadeira (and by the way, field blend means that they don’t know what the grapes are other than they are Vitis vinifera and make good wine).

In addition to the reds and the whites, we also tasted some fortified wines and they were very smooth. Our server served them to us with dessert – they were excellent.

More great wine at the tile museum

Another great place to visit is the tile museum in Estremoz. It was a lot of fun to walk through the museum and learn how the styles of tiles changes over the centuries. And better yet, when you leave, you walk through a wine-tasting room where you have the chance to taste wines from all over the region. (If you haven’t listened to my interview with Carolina Munoz whom I met at the wine-tasting room, listen here. She’s fun, loves wine and has had an amazing life – and she’s just beginning!)

Ready to go?

I hope you are. And it’s not just about how to drink uncommonly great wine in Estremoz, Portugal, it’s everywhere else you can taste the wine, eat the food and meet the people. And if you can’t make it to Estremoz (and I’ve only touched the surface here), I hope you can explore the many different regions of Portugal.