Monção and Melgaço are Portugal's two northernmost towns, on the left bank of the Minho river, facing Galicia. In this valley, sheltered by mountains and with a drier climate than the rest of the Minho, the north's most prestigious white wine is made: Alvarinho.
Alvarinho
The Monção and Melgaço sub-region of the Vinho Verde appellation is where the Alvarinho grape shows its best: aromatic, structured white wines that can age, very different from the more common light, spritzy vinhos verdes. Many estates offer tours and tastings; the most famous is the Palácio da Brejoeira, a nineteenth-century neoclassical palace with gardens and vineyards a few kilometres from Monção. Melgaço holds the annual Festa do Alvarinho e do Fumeiro, devoted to wine and cured meats.
Monção
Monção's centre is enclosed by the remains of a seventeenth-century fortress. Its heroine is Deu-la-Deu Martins: according to tradition, in 1368, during a Castilian siege, when the town was starving, she had the last loaves thrown from the walls to the besiegers, shouting that there was plenty. Disheartened, the besiegers withdrew. At Corpus Christi the town celebrates the Festa da Coca, in which St George on horseback fights the Coca, a wood-and-cloth dragon, in a symbolic battle between good and evil watched by thousands. Monção also has an old spa.
Melgaço
Melgaço, Portugal's northernmost town, has a castle with a thirteenth-century keep and a medieval centre. It is home to the Cinema Museum, born from the collection of the critic Jean-Loup Passek, and the Filmes do Homem documentary festival. The Minho, wilder here, is ideal for rafting and kayaking. The municipality climbs to the Peneda sanctuary in Peneda-Gerês National Park and to the parish of Castro Laboreiro, with its native sheepdog.
Getting there
Monção is about an hour and a half from Porto by car (A3 to Valença, then along the river); Valença is about twenty kilometres away.