I love trains and I love trains in Portugal. They run on time, smoothly, and they have free WiFi on board.
When I read the invitation for Rota das Vinhas do Pó, they got me at “train ride from Lisbon”. They didn’t need to convince me with wine and food. In fact, I had a pretty good feeling that the food and the wine would not disappoint.
The train hadn’t left the station yet and I was loving the environment already. We couldn’t have asked for a better tour guide than José Pequeno (who, incidentally, has a non-tourism-related day job. I kind of feel that’s the norm with people I’ve met since founding Tripper. Didn’t I tell you already how I love the stories I’m privileged to tell?). Noticing our slight disappointment with the view – the backs of suburban apartment buildings – he assured us that in a couple of more stations, we’d begin to see vineyards (which we did).
The Setúbal peninsula may be more famous for the beaches in Tróia than wine (unless you’re talking about Moscatel), but the region has been gaining some attention in the past years. Rota das Vinhas do Pó was about to show us around some of the more promising vineyards in the area.
There’s this (snobbish) tendency in Portugal to consider some regions are more appropriate to produce high-quality wine, but I don’t think the newer players should be left out of the game. Besides, considering that most of the land in Fernando Pó is basically sand (pó means dust so rota das vinhas do pó could translate into dust vineyards’ route), producing great wine here is challenging enough.