Varietal Encruzado at 13.25 euros on the estate's own list, the grape that is grown almost entirely inside this region and the cheapest honest introduction to it.
Tip: The Reserva version doubles the price to 25 euros; taste them side by side at the cellar door before deciding which to carry home.
Single-variety Touriga Nacional rosé at 15 euros from the estate's own list, the summer bottle to drink on a terrace at 400 metres while the reds are still in barrel.
Tip: If 15 euros is over budget the plain Soito Rosé sits at 9.50 euros on the same list and drinks well cold.
Barrel-aged Encruzado named for a forebear who helped start agricultural cooperativism here, nine months in French oak, 17.40 euros on the estate's own shop.
Tip: The producer suggests it with fish, shellfish and cheese, served at 10 degrees; it is a Serra da Estrela cheese wine.
A white field blend of Encruzado, Malvasia Fina, Cerceal Branco and Bical at 9.94 euros, the four classic white grapes of the region in one bottle under ten euros.
Tip: The producer publishes the blend as 45 per cent Encruzado, 35 Malvasia Fina, 10 Cerceal Branco and 10 Bical, and asks for 4 to 6 degrees.
Varietal Encruzado from the Penalva cooperative at 8.46 euros including tax, the cheapest bottle on this list that still tastes unmistakably of the grape on its label.
Tip: The same cellar's Encruzado took a gold medal at the 2026 Melhores Vinhos do Dão; the co-op counter is open on weekdays.
Varietal Cerceal-Branco at 14.11 euros, a grape that rarely gets bottled on its own here. The 2023 took a Città del Vino gold medal collected at the Penalva wine festival.
Tip: The producer describes it as a white with marked acidity and austerity that will keep, and asks you to drink it slowly.
A reserva red for 9.59 euros. The 2020 took a Città del Vino gold medal in Italy and a prize at the tenth Crédito Agrícola wine competition in 2023.
Tip: This is the bottle to buy by the case; nothing else on the co-op list gives you a medalled reserva for under ten euros.
After hotel pickup in Coimbra, we take direction to activity start in Viseu. Day dedicated to bicycle touring on an old railway branch that has 130 years of transpor...