Colares, the Wine Village of Sintra

A Civil Parish of Sintra

Colares is one of the civil parishes of Sintra municipality, stretching from the foot of the Serra down to the Atlantic. Several famous places you may already have on your list actually sit inside it. Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe, lies in Colares parish.

So do most of Sintra's best-known beaches: Praia da Adraga, Azenhas do Mar, Praia das Maçãs, Praia Grande and Praia Pequena all carry Colares postcodes, such as 2705-351 for the village itself. The parish is part of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park coastal belt.

A Village With a Foral From 1516

The village has old administrative roots: Manuel I granted Colares its foral, its town charter, on 10 November 1516. In 1385, after the Battle of Aljubarrota, João I gave the town to the Constable Nuno Álvares Pereira. Today the cooperative winery and its bus stop are the practical centre for a visitor.

Visit Sintra's suggested itineraries pair the village with the Eléctrico de Sintra and Praia das Maçãs in a single day trip from the historic centre.

A Demarcated Wine Region

Colares is also the name of one of Portugal's oldest demarcated wine regions, demarcated in 1908 and described by the regional commission as the westernmost wine-growing region in continental Europe. The DOC area covers three parishes, all within Sintra municipality: Colares, São Martinho and São João das Lampas. The wine carries the same name as the village, and the Adega Regional de Colares at Alameda Coronel Linhares de Lima 32, 2705-351 Colares, is its cooperative heart.

• Parish: Colares, in Sintra municipality
• Region demarcated: 1908, by the Carta de Lei of 1908
• DOC parishes: Colares, São Martinho, São João das Lampas
• Adega address: Alameda Coronel Linhares de Lima 32, 2705-351 Colares

What About Restaurants

People search for Colares Portugal restaurants, and we have to be honest about the sources. Visit Sintra's wine routes do mention lunch in Colares and lunch at Praia das Maçãs as route stops, but our independent guide does not review or recommend individual restaurants, and the official pages we checked name none. Treat the village and the beach settlements as places with food and drink available and verify on the ground or with the Sintra tourist offices.

Phylloxera and the Sand Barrier

From 1865, phylloxera devastated Portugal's vineyards. The insect attacks vine roots, and the standard response everywhere was to graft European vines onto resistant American rootstock. Colares escaped.

Its vineyards sit on 'chão de areia', deep dune sand, and the sand layer between the surface and the clay below kept the insect from reaching the roots. The result is rare in Europe: Ramisco vines still grown ungrafted, 'pé-franco', on their own roots. Visit Sintra's own wine page makes this the centrepiece of the region's story.

The history is set out on Visit Sintra's Vinho de Colares page.

Chão de Areia and Chão Rijo

The region has two sub-zones. 'Chão de areia' is the sandy coastal strip, where the ungrafted vines grow. 'Chão rijo' is the harder ground of limestone and marl soils.

About 80% of the Colares vineyard sits on chão de areia. Near the sea, the vines are protected by windbreaks of woven cane, the 'paliçadas de canas'.

The Ramisco and Malvasia Grapes

Colares DOC wine rests on two varieties: Ramisco for red and Malvasia de Colares for white. Wine-tourism sources report that DOC rules require a minimum 80% of the defining variety, with the remaining 20% from authorised supplementary grapes, João de Santarém, Molar and Parreira-Matias for reds, Arinto, Galego-Dourado and Jampal for whites. The same sources report that Ramisco ripens very late, never before the last week of September, and yields far less than the Malvasia, which is one reason Colares reds are scarce.

• Ramisco: the red grape, grown ungrafted in sand, reported to ripen late with low yields
• Malvasia de Colares: the white grape, the region's other pillar
• Vineyards near the sea: protected by cane windbreaks
• Altitude: roughly 110 m, less than 1 km from the Atlantic, per the regional commission

The Adega Regional de Colares

The cooperative, founded in 1931, gathers more than 50% of the region's production and more than 90% of its producers, so it is the single most practical stop. It opens Monday to Saturday 09:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00. Mind the midday break, which catches visitors who arrive around lunch.

Its official site offers a guided 'Prova de Vinhos', a wine tasting covering the winery's history and winemaking philosophy. The site publishes no fixed tasting price, and no official page we checked states one. Ask by email or phone when you book.

• Hours: Monday to Saturday 09:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00
• Closed at midday between the two sessions
• Tasting: guided Prova de Vinhos offered, price not published
• Address: Alameda Coronel Linhares de Lima 32, 2705-351 Colares

Booking With a Producer

Visit Sintra's four wine routes all end at a producer visit and tasting, and each route instructs you to contact the named producer in advance to book. No tasting slot at any Colares producer is listed as bookable online through a central platform on the pages we checked. The reliable sequence is simple: pick a route, contact the producer ahead of your trip, then build the rest of the day around the confirmed time.

What We Cannot Tell You

We will not invent figures. No official page publishes a tasting price for the Adega or for the other producers, so this guide states the gap instead of a number. The same applies to bottle prices at the cellars.

Treat any tasting figure found elsewhere as unverified until the producer confirms it.

Buses to the Adega

The bus stop you want is 'Av Cel Linhares Lima (Adega Colares)', right by the cooperative, served by Carris Metropolitana lines 1242, 1250 and 1254. Line 1242 runs Casais Cabrela to Almoçageme (Mercado) and stops at the Adega and Praia Maçãs (Mercado). Line 1250 serves Praia Grande.

Line 1254 runs Portela Sintra (Estação Norte) to Magoito (Praia) via the Adega, Praia Grande, Praia Maçãs (Mercado) and Azenhas do Mar. Carris Metropolitana's fare pages do not show a readable single-ticket price for these Sintra-area buses on the pages we checked, so we print no figure.

• Adega stop: Av Cel Linhares Lima (Adega Colares), lines 1242, 1250, 1254
• Line 1248: Portela Sintra (Estação Norte) to Praia Maçãs (Mercado)
• Line 1247: Fontanelas to Portela de Sintra (Estação) via Janas
• Fares: not readable in the operator's published fare pages

The Eléctrico de Sintra

The historic tram runs about 11 km from Vila Alda in Estefânia, Sintra, to Praia das Maçãs, taking about 45 minutes between the Serra and the Atlantic. It is a seasonal service, running in spring and summer. Tickets are always purchased on board, in cash.

The municipality links to a schedule document rather than printing the timetable inline, so we do not reproduce tram fares or departure times here. Check the current schedule in force before you travel.

Route Facts

Pequena Rota 8, the Vinho de Colares trail, is a circular route of about 15.5 km starting at the Adega Regional de Colares, GPS 38.805959, -9.450007. It runs through Pinhal da Nazaré and the Ramisco vineyards, then via Fontanelas and Janas. The municipality describes it as almost flat, between pine wood and Atlantic coast, with a cumulative ascent of 280 m.

Like the other municipal Pequenas Rotas it is self-guided, waymarked on the ground, with information panels and a downloadable GPX file. No walking duration is published for this route, only distance and ascent.

• Distance: about 15.5 km, circular
• Start and finish: Adega Regional de Colares
• Cumulative ascent: 280 m
• GPX file: downloadable from the municipal walking page
• Duration: not published

Before You Set Out

One caveat applies. Visit Sintra's walking page carries a notice that, because of continuous adverse weather, the cycling and walking routes in the Serra de Sintra are not available for use for safety, with no reopening date given. Check the municipal walking page close to your travel date before committing a day to PR8.

Our hiking guide covers the other marked routes in the municipality.

Praia das Maçãs

Praia das Maçãs takes its name from apples carried by the stream from the orchards, and local legend has autumn river currents carrying apples down to the shore. It was the first Sintra beach to become famous for tourism. A 'casa de pasto', an eating house, was built there in 1888, summer houses followed, and in 1904 the Eléctrico de Sintra got its terminus there.

The beach holds Blue Flag status for the bathing season, and the 2026 bathing season runs 30 May to 13 September with lifeguard assistance ensured at the identified beaches per the Portaria. See our beaches guide.

Azenhas do Mar

The village of Azenhas do Mar sits on the cliff above a beach carved into the rock, with natural seawater pools at the bottom of the valley. It is also a wine address: Adega Beira Mar, one of Visit Sintra's listed Colares producers, is there. At certain tides, sand builds up into a small beach in front of the pools.

No official page publishes exact tide times for the pools. More in our Azenhas do Mar guide.

• Beach address: Escadinhas J. Ramos Baeta, 2705-101 Colares
• Producer on site: Adega Beira Mar
• Viewpoint: Miradouro das Azenhas do Mar on the clifftop

Adraga, Grande and Pequena

Praia da Adraga, at R. da Praia da Adraga, 2765-065 Colares, is described by the official site as one of Sintra's most beautiful beaches, almost wild, with an emblematic stone arch and excellent water quality. It holds Blue Flag status. Praia Grande is the largest beach of the Sintra coastline, a main surf and bodyboard spot that hosts the Bodyboard World Championship each year, with dinosaur footprints preserved in the limestone cliff at its south end, and also holds Blue Flag status.

Praia Pequena next door is more sheltered from north winds. Note that Carris Metropolitana's beach-lines page does not list a bus line for Praia da Adraga. The nearest named stop in the operator's data is Almoçageme (Mercado).

See Praia da Adraga.

What the Official Sources Say

Visit Sintra's accommodation listing gives no official area definitions and no hotel count for Colares, and no municipal page we checked ranks it as a named stay area. Our where to stay page compares the bases around Sintra. We cannot state how many places to sleep the village has, only that the question is decided by what you book.

• No official area definitions for Colares as a stay zone
• No official hotel count published
• Booking decision stays with you, verify directly

Our Reading

Our reading of the geography: Colares works well as a base if your priority is the coast, the tram and the wine, because the buses on lines 1242, 1250 and 1254 link it to both Sintra and the beach strip. It is a quieter proposition than Sintra town, which puts you next to the palaces. That is a judgement about location, not an official classification.