Baroque manor in Penalva do Castelo, now a Parador hotel, with museum rooms, a vineyard, a cellar and a dairy that makes Serra da Estrela cheese and requeijão DOP; an Estrelacoop member. The dairy and cellar were shown to visitors on World Wine Tourism Day in November 2024, but no regular dairy tour is advertised.
Cheeses: Queijo Serra da Estrela, Requeijão Serra da Estrela
Serra da Estrela's paste is buttery, unctuous and only slightly acidulous. A dry Encruzado white has the acidity to cut that cream and enough texture of its own to match the cheese's soft, rich body.
Requeijão is eaten with honey or pumpkin preserve, so a sweet wine follows the same line. A late-harvest Dão white, soft and full with low acidity, matches the creamy white curd rather than cutting through it.
A varietal Alfrocheiro red has the acidity to lift Serra da Estrela's buttery, slightly acidulous paste, and the cream of the raw ewe's milk softens the wine's tannin instead of letting it scrape against the cheese.
Address: Parador Casa da Ínsua, 3556-126 Penalva do Castelo, Dão
Cheese maker at Vilar Seco in the Nelas part of the Dão, listed by the Nelas municipality among its Serra da Estrela cheese makers; an Estrelacoop member that attended PROVE Viseu in 2026.
Cheeses: Queijo Serra da Estrela
Visiting: weekday opening hours on the Nelas municipal listing; call ahead, no tour or tasting stated
Cooperative of Serra da Estrela DOP cheese producers in Celorico da Beira. Its online shop sells the cheese, Velho and requeijão, and it runs a course for qualifying cheese tasters.
Cheeses: Queijo Serra da Estrela, Queijo Serra da Estrela Velho, Requeijão Serra da Estrela
Visiting: online shop for Serra da Estrela DOP cheese, Velho and requeijão, course for qualifying Serra da Estrela DOP cheese tasters, run with INIAV at its Celorico premises (30 and 31 October, 6 and 7 November 2026; register on its site)
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...
