Woke to much gloomier weather today- cloudy and light drizzle. We had a tour and wine tasting booked at the Joao Portugal Ramos winery in Esrremoz, about an hour away, so we headed off round 9.30.

Arrived there round 10.45 (it’s never too early for a wine tasting is it?). The winery buildings were absolutely gorgeous- with the ‘old’ building being the original winery and the ‘new’ building ,designed to complement it by the owners son who is an architect, incorporating lots environmental features (eg grass roof terrace & water channels around the barrels) designed to keep the wine cool in the summer.

After our tour we got to taste the wines. David was driving so only tasted the reds, I therefore bore responsibility of tasting them all on behalf of both of us- a tough job but someone’s got to do it! Tasting came with cheeses, pate bread and olive oil, so by the time we left we were fully replete.

Reds were beautiful and on asking if they had suppliers in Oz the answer was yes- Aldi!!

With rain settling in we made only one stop on way back at Vila Vicosa yet another small rural town with a huge medieval castle.

Back at hotel by 3.30, narrowly missing peak hour traffic which is a nightmare on these narrow streets.

Post-dinner we are in our room with the heating cranked up to the max trying to get our washing dry before we leave in the morning.