Wine, culture, and what is happening where we travel

Quintas across the Cima Corgo report veraison arriving ten to fourteen days ahead of the ten-year average, which puts the first Touriga Nacional pickings in late August rather than mid-September.

The practical consequence for visitors is simple: if you travel in September you are more likely to see fermentation than picking, and the lagares will be busy at night. Ask before you arrive — most quintas will let a small group watch the treading if they know you are coming.

The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga has rehung its Portuguese primitives, and the Panels of St Vincent are now shown in a room built for them rather than borrowed.

The tile museum at Madre de Deus remains the quietest great museum in the city. Go at opening and you will have the church to yourself for twenty minutes.

Talhas are pitch-lined clay vessels of six hundred litres or more. Grapes go in whole, skins and all, and the wine is drawn from a tap near the base once the cap has fallen — traditionally on St Martin's Day, 11 November.

Vila de Frades keeps the practice alive commercially, and a growing number of serious producers have adopted it. The wines are savoury, faintly saline and quite unlike anything else in Portugal.

Semana Grande in August fills every room in the Parte Vieja; the film festival in late September does the same for the Gros side of the river.

For a calmer visit, come in the first half of October: the txakoli harvest is in, the cider houses open their season in January, and the pintxos bars belong to locals again.

Prices at the fair itself are set by the theatre of the event. The trattorie in the hill villages around La Morra and Monforte serve the same truffle over tajarin for a fraction of it.

Book Barolo cellar visits well ahead for October — growers are in the middle of harvest and slots are limited.

Improved Celta services between Porto and Vigo shorten the northern crossing considerably, and onward high-speed connections put Madrid within a comfortable day.

For tailor-made itineraries this opens a genuinely appealing shape: Douro, then Rías Baixas, then Rioja, all without a flight.