Wine tasting in Lisbon, in the palace of the Port Wine Institute
Three wines at half past five, in the palace where the Port Wine Institute has poured since 1946.
Reserve A TastingEvery evening at half past five, in a private room of an eighteenth-century palace, our sommelier pours three wines: a white, a rosé and a red, usually from the palace’s own estate in the Alentejo, each accompanied by a small plate from Federico’s kitchen. The session lasts three quarters of an hour, seats ten, and is open to guests of the hotel and to visitors alike; the only requirement is to book ahead.
The setting explains the habit. For much of the twentieth century this palace on Rua de São Pedro de Alcântara was the Lisbon home of the Port Wine Institute, and wine has never really left the building: it is in the name above the door, in the Ports still poured downstairs, in the carpets upstairs woven with the pattern of Douro vineyards.
For those staying in the house, the first tasting comes with the room. Everyone else is simply welcome, at the same table and on the same terms.
The daily wine tasting in Lisbon, at half past five
The tasting is led by our resident sommelier, Cidynara Roquete, in one of Federico’s private rooms, in the quiet hour before the restaurant fills; when the private rooms are given over to an event, the session moves to a calm corner of the dining room instead. Three wines, three stories, and a plate beside each glass, because in Portugal wine has always been something one eats with.
Ten places keep it a conversation rather than a lecture, and that is deliberate. Beginners are welcome, and looked after: at a small table, every question finds its answer, including the ones people hesitate to ask in larger rooms. Booking is essential, ideally a day or two ahead, by writing to info@federico.pt.
What to expect from the tasting
You arrive a few minutes before half past five and are walked through the still restaurant to the room. The first pour is the white, and with it the first plate. Cidynara speaks of the grape, the place and the year, then lets the glass continue the argument. The rosé follows, then the red, each with its pairing, each with time for questions. By a quarter past six the only decision left is a pleasant one: another glass at the bar, the Solar’s long wall of Ports, or a table for dinner beneath the courtyard’s vertical garden.
Tastings and prices
There are two families of tastings, and both include their pairings; each glass arrives with something chosen for it in Federico’s kitchen. Prices are per person and include VAT, the same for guests and for visitors.
Sommelier’s Choice
| Tasting | Duration | Wines Poured | Per Person |
| Three wines | About 1 hour | 3 | €20 |
| Five Wines | About 1,5 hours | 5 | €30 |
| Seven wines | About 2 hours | 7 | €40 |
Selected Port Wines
| Tasting | Duration | Wines Poured | Per Person |
| Three wines | About 1 hour | 3 | €20 |
| Five Wines | About 1,5 hours | 5 | €30 |
| Seven wines | About 2 hours | 7 | €40 |
At five wines, the Sommelier’s Choice opens with sparkling and closes on a tawny; at seven, it unfolds across two whites and two reds before the Port.
Port wine tasting in Lisbon, since 1946
On the nineteenth of February 1946, the Port Wine Institute opened its Solar do Vinho do Porto in this building, and Lisbon has come here for Port ever since. The Solar continues inside the hotel today, kept by the Institute itself, with some one hundred and fifty Ports and Douro wines along its wall: one takes a card and a glass, pours at one’s own pace, and settles the card on leaving.
The house keeps its own rituals besides. Each guest receives, at check-in, a card for a welcome glass of Port at the bar beneath the old brick vault. And for those who prefer depth to breadth, our Port flights pour three, five or seven selected wines with their pairings, from a dry White Port and an unfiltered LBV to tawnies aged ten and twenty years in wood.
The palace’s own Alentejo wines
The white, rosé and red that usually open the daily tasting are made for the palace by Adega Monte Branco, in Estremoz: vines at four hundred metres on limestone and schist, cool nights, mornings of fog off the aquifer, traditional Portuguese varieties farmed with patience. Estremoz is the Alentejo’s white city of marble, stone that travelled as far as Versailles and the Vatican, and the wines carry something of that same quiet mineral spine.
A bottle that stays in the memory can go home in the suitcase, or simply reappear at dinner the same evening.
Wine pairing dinners at Federico
When a tasting deserves to become an evening, the wine pairing dinners at Federico carry it on: two menus, each of three courses with a glass chosen for every plate, at €50 and €55, served every night of the week. There is nothing to arrange in advance beyond the table itself; the menu is chosen once seated, beneath the vertical garden of the palace courtyard.
Questions we are asked
No. The tastings are open to visitors, on the same terms guests enjoy. Staying carries one privilege: the first tasting comes with the room.
By email to info@federico.pt, or by telephone on (+351) 211 513 850, with a preferred day and tasting. Sessions close at ten people, so a day or two of notice is kind to everyone.
Yes. The Institute’s shop inside the palace works on a self-pour card through the day and keeps its own hours; ask at the desk on arrival.
Tastings are for adults; the legal age in Portugal is eighteen. Younger companions are welcome at the restaurant.
Tell us when booking. The pairings come from Federico’s kitchen, which much prefers to know a day early.
The room seats ten by design. For a larger party, write to us and we will shape something private around you, from a closed room to a Port flight of your own.
Yes. The front desk arranges visits to small family producers in the countryside around Lisbon; a day or two of notice is enough.
In the palace at Rua de São Pedro de Alcântara 39-49, in Bairro Alto, opposite the São Pedro de Alcântara viewpoint. The tastings themselves take place at Federico, the palace’s restaurant, whose own door opens on Rua do Diário de Notícias 150.
The Room Upstairs
A tasting at half past five, the Solar before dinner, a pairing menu beneath the vertical garden, and no journey home afterwards: that is the quiet argument for sleeping in a wine hotel in Lisbon rather than visiting one. The rooms and suites of Palácio Ludovice wait one staircase above the tasting table, in a palace that holds One Michelin Key and the shortest walk home in Lisbon.
