Full article about Santar & Moreira: vines, cheese and azulejo trails
Taste warm requeijão at dawn, hike vineyard terraces, sip €25 Dão before dinner.
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Where the vineyard writes the story
Santar’s earliest mention appears in a 10th-century charter, but the village’s real signature is carved into the hillside terraces that stripe the slopes above the Dão. Walk the 3.2 km between Santar and Moreira and you’ll pass the 1724 stone cross that once marked the boundary of two parishes; the same route, lined with olive and 70-year-old Touriga Nacional vines, now forms the parish’s agricultural spine.
Cheese, lamb and Dão in the glass
Quinta da Lage’s dairy opens at 09:00. Arrive before ten and the requeijão is still warm, spooned from vats into paper wraps at €6 a kilo. The sheep’s-milk Serra da Estrela DOP costs €14 and tastes of thistle and high-altitude thyme; the flock grazes the common land above 400 m.
In Moreira, O Cais serves roast lamb only on Fridays and Sundays – €12 including a bottomless tumbler of house red. Chanfana (goat stew) is daily if ordered a day ahead (tel: +351 916 345 789).
Two kilometres east, Quinta dos Roques runs tastings at 15:00, Tuesday to Saturday, €10 for three wines. The 2019 Reserva, 18 months in French oak, sells at the cellar door for €25; buy here – UK importers add 40 %.
Trails through olives and vines
The PR2 SNT footpath links the two villages in 5.4 km and 1 h 45 min. Start at Santar’s parish church, climb to the 450 m contour at Quinta da Princesa, then drop beside the Ribeira de Carvalha, following yellow-and-red blazes. Mid-way, the 1682 Chapel of São Sebastião – built after the Black Death – is never locked; inside, 18th-century azulejos show the saint bristling with arrows.
Rural stays without the schedule
Eleven self-catering houses are scattered through the parish. Casa do Arquiteto (Rua do Adro 23) sleeps four from €80, booked direct. Casa do Lagar, on the Quinta de Santar estate, folds fresh cheese into breakfast and charges €120.
The only grocery (Rua Dr José Pereira) opens 08:00-12:00, 14:00-19:00, closed Sunday. Pick up rye bread from the wood-fired oven at Carvalhal (€1.20) before it sells out.
Harvest time is late September. The parish council sets the date according to sugar readings; there is no programme – just turn up, join the pickers, then pay €5 for supper in the association hall.