Six Senses Douro Valley

The Douro bends below the terrace at Samodães, and above the bend stands a pink-washed manor house that has watched the river since the 19th century. Six Senses Douro Valley occupies that house and its grounds in the municipality of Lamego, on the south bank between Peso da Régua and Pinhão, in the stretch of the valley classified by UNESCO as the Alto Douro Wine Region. The hotel opened in July 2015, the first Six Senses in Europe and the brand's first conversion of a historic building rather than a new resort.

History

The property is the Quinta de Vale de Abraão, a wine estate whose manor was rebuilt in the 1800s. It had already been a hotel, the Aquapura Douro Valley, from 2007, before the Six Senses group took it over and closed it for a redesign. The brand's arrival in Portugal in 2015 was its first European opening of any kind, and the choice of a wine valley rather than a beach set the pattern for its later European houses.

Architecture and design

The manor keeps its granite walls, deep window reveals and the formal garden in front, with a modern wing of rooms set lower on the slope. The New York designer Clodagh led the interiors and worked with the tones of the valley: schist, oak, cork and linen, with the brand's habit of filling rooms with daylight. The wine library, a room lined with bottles from the Douro estates, is the social centre of the house and runs tastings every evening. The gardens are laid out in terraces, as the vineyards are, and reach down towards the river.

Rooms and suites

Rooms are split between the historic house and the newer wing. Those in the manor have high ceilings and the original window proportions; those in the wing are larger and open onto terraces facing the river. Suites add separate living rooms, and the Quinta suites at the top of the range come with private gardens. Villas with their own pools were added to the estate after the opening. Every room has a view either of the Douro or of the vineyards behind it.

Dining

The main restaurant, Vale de Abraão, serves dishes built around produce from the Douro and the hotel's own kitchen garden, with a long list of local wines. An open-kitchen space handles breakfast and casual meals, and in summer tables move outside to the terrace. The wine library offers the broadest selection of Douro and port wines of any hotel in the valley and hosts tastings led by the house sommeliers.

Wellness

The spa is the largest in the Douro, with an indoor pool, treatment rooms, a hammam and a programme that follows the Six Senses model of sleep, nutrition and movement. An outdoor pool sits in the garden below the house with views over the river. Yoga is held in a pavilion in the grounds, and the estate's paths run through the vineyards.

Weddings and events

The manor's reception rooms and the garden terraces are used for weddings, with ceremonies in the garden facing the river and dinners in the house. Meeting rooms in the main building take corporate retreats and wine-trade events. Full buyouts are offered for larger weddings.

Location

Samodães is a parish of Lamego, about ten minutes by car from the town of Peso da Régua on the opposite bank, where the Douro railway line stops on its run between Porto and Pocinho. Porto and its airport are about an hour and a half to the west by motorway. The port lodges of Pinhão are half an hour upstream, and the river itself can be travelled by the hotel's boat or by the rabelo boats that still run tourist trips. For a luxury hotel in the Douro Valley it has the double advantage of the historic house and of being first.