New Farm

The date inscribed at the fron of the winery takes us to 1764, and Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo has more than 250 years of history to discover. Owned by the Amorim family since 1999, the 120-hectare property – 83 of vineyards – includes a museum where you return in time to see how port wine was made, through a collection of more than 500 pieces.
In the main house of the eighteenth century there are six remaining rooms of the original 11, that have been renovated in 2020 by the architect Ana Vale and Luísa Amorim herself, and with a privileged view of the Alto Douro Vinhateiro, a Unesco World Heritage Site. With the renovation, which came to modernize the care environment of wine manor, wine tourism entered the relais & Châteaux network and is even the only one with this seal throughout the region.
The chapel of Our Lady of Carmo that gives name to the property is in front of the reception, but through a pedestrian trail through the vineyards it is possible to discover, right by the river, the original chapel, built by boatmen and fishermen. It is difficult to imagine, looking at the waters so serene that bathe the valley, that before the dams, the Douro is a river of fast and “difficult to deal”, in the words of Miguel Torga recalled in the museum. “The chapel was the place to pray and ask for protection for the challenge that was to take the Rabelos Boats to Porto,” says Eduardo Ferreira, one of the people responsible for the guided tours that take place daily. Eduardo added: “The Douro is changing and Quinta Nova is an example of this”, referring to the growing interest on the so-called table wine, which already represents 90% of the production. At the end of the visit it is possible to taste several wines, from the award-winning whites to the reserve reds, always made with castes of the region. It is also possible to book an even more unique experience, called “Winemaker for a day”. The purpose is that participants try and fill the wine maker Jorge Alves’ shoes for the day by reenacting his day-to-day responsibilities on the marble counter-top equipped for this purpose, overlooking the oak barrels, producing their own wine from the mixture – the technical term is blending – of three selected lots. At the end, there’s the bottling, corking and even the creation of an original label.
We must also mention the beautiful shale pool, embedded in the terrace and quite tranquil, and in the restaurant Terraçu’s, where the chef André Carvalho is responsible for the fine dining menu that takes advantage of Duriense dishes and local ingredients, including the cuscos of Trás-os-Montes, served with mushrooms and truffle. Wine pairing with the wines produced in the farm is optional but it should definitely be mandatory.