The Art Of Scoring World-Class Waves and Wine In Portugal

Editor's Note: This article is special to surfer from Paris-based wine writer Chris Howard.

The morning air is still and the ocean mirrors the sky as we wind down the path from Areias do Seixo, a five-star eco-resort perched on the cliffs above Santa Cruz, between Ericeira and Nazaré. Low tide has pulled back the blue-green curtain, exposing mussel-laden black rocks. We spot what appear to be seals but turn out to be a pair of aquamen diving for octopus.

Buckets in hand, the proprietor Gonçalo Alves leads us to a rocky point where we'll harvest the mollusks we'll have for lunch after a morning surf. The long beach is empty save for a lone man with a shovel, who we learn is hunting fossils—which he regularly finds on this exposed shore. This retired carpenter may be a hobbyist, but there's a dinosaur named after him after he discovered a large femur bone nearby. Under the eroding cliffs of Portugal’s Atlantic edge, deep time feels present. 

Having filled our buckets, we return to the middle of the beach, where empty, chest-high peaks are improving with the rising tide. Surfers begin filtering down the cliff and congregating in front of the best wave. Yet these aren't Santa Cruz locals, but a crew of Lisbon winemakers who are also waveriders. Despite the beach's consistency, it's uncrowded—with top-notch waves at Ericeira and Peniche nearby, Santa Cruz flies under the radar.

It’s mid-summer and I'm here with a small group of wine critics from the UK, hosted by Vinhos de Lisboa, the local wine association. The president, Francisco Toscano Rico, is a lifelong surfer, as are many of its members. As in Margaret River, the Basque Coast, South Africa's Western Cape, and California, wine and waves go hand in hand in the Lisbon region. 

None of the Londoners have surfed before, but they're highly proficient wine drinkers. They get a lesson from the guys at Noah Beach House—a comprehensive surf operation offering instruction, guiding, accommodation, a restaurant, skate ramps, yoga, pilates, massage, and something called ‘animal flow kids’. The instructors have the aloha spirit of Waikiki beachboys—all smiles and that Portuguese way of treating visitors like old friends. They get the Brits going on soft-tops on the inside.

When João from Noah asks what I want to ride, I tell him I'll take whatever. I might be picky about wine, but not surf craft. He nevertheless lays out four solid sticks and I opt for a Lost fish. Portugal's surf infrastructure is dialed from north to south, as none other than Gerry Lopez has observed. You could easily travel light and find high-spec gear to rent—attractive if your European tour is more than a surf trip.

Passing the floundering Brits, whose expressions suggest they're taking on Nazaré, I join the winemakers outside. As I found in South Africa, winemakers in Portugal don't just surf—they surf well. Plausibly because they surf often —between Peniche and Ericeira alone, there are dozens of grand cru breaks. And because surfing and winemaking develop complementary skills—reading conditions, paying attention to nature's cycles, knowing when to act and when to wait. Early autumn is the busiest time of year for a winemaker, but once the grapes are picked, pressed, and fermenting away, they're free to charge just as the winter swells start rolling in.

We trade waves for several hours before making our way back up the cliff. Gonçalo has a charcoal grill going in the edenic garden that provides all the resort's organic produce. The mussels are steaming away, smoke and brine filling the air. The winemakers open bottles of their vibrant, saline whites, made from local grapes Arinto and Vital. They pair perfectly with the hand-harvested seafood and post-surf, saltwater high.

After a short siesta and dip in the pool, we head to Alcobaça, where we take in Portugal's first monastery before making our way up the coast to Nazaré. It's mid-summer, so no titanic feats to behold, but we visit the new museum on the point and learn about the underwater canyon that funnels those once unknown, now legendary walls. Even on a calm day, standing on the cliff above Praia do Norte is humbling and inspiring, bringing to life the closing lines of Fernando Pessoa's famous poem, 'Portuguese Sea': 'God placed danger and the abyss in the sea, / But he also made it heaven's mirror.' 

Even in the off-season, Nazaré is worth visiting—a unique blend of old school fishing town and big-wave subculture. And up the beach at Praia do Norte there's almost always something to ride. The day we're there, head-high surf is peeling down several sand points with no one out. I'm keen, but there are vineyards to visit and wine to taste. 

The Lisbon coast is stacked with options, and the winemakers know them all. None more so than the Cortezia family in Colares, continental Europe's westernmost point. In a neighborhood by the beach, Haja Cortezia is equal parts winery, home, restaurant and tasting room—the rafters lined with surfboards that are by no means decor. Stop in to taste, grind, and get pointed to the best surf—hard-charging Lois and son will probably join you. 

The family are stewards of rare Ramisco and Malvasia vineyards growing in sand. When a tiny insect called phylloxera devastated European vineyards in the late 19th century, salty old Colares survived. Their oceanic wines don't just reflect terroir—but meroir: they speak of the sea.

From Colares it's well worth venturing up to Sintra, the misty hill town where 19th-century palaces rise from cypress forests—a dreamscape that inspired Byron and became UNESCO's first ‘cultural landscape.’ Down on the coast where the Atlantic meets the Tagus, Cascais is the birthplace of Portuguese surfing. The five star beachbreak at Carcavelos also gives its name to a delicious fortified wine—Lisbon's honeyed answer to Port. From Cascais it's just minutes to Lisbon proper, a world-class capital in its own right.

From arts and culture to wine and waves, the Lisbon region is hard to beat. The airport is fifteen minutes from the city center, and you can be in the surf within an hour. Waves crank year-round. Wine may or may not be your thing, but Portugal makes some of the best in the world at prices that put France and California to shame. On Europe’s Atlantic edge, everything flows from the ocean, an echo of breaking waves.