Vinho Verde Coastal Trail

Vinho Verde Coastal Trail

Seneca the Younger wrote about wines from this river valley. Two thousand years later, the same granite pergolas the Romans built still hold vines overhead — Alvarinho, Loureiro, and a deep purple red called Vinhão that locals refuse to export. In 1369, Deu-la-Deu Martins baked her town's last flour into bread and sent it to the besieging Castilian army as a bluff. It worked. She's buried 200 meters from the cooperative that named their flagship wine after her. Order Vinhão at any tasca in Ponte de Lima and watch the waiter's face when a foreigner asks for it.