The Experience
A Week of Wine and Words in the Douro
Spend 6 nights at Casa da Granja, a 17th-century manor set among the terraced vineyards of the Douro Valley. You write poetry in the mornings with Giacomo Boffi, a Lisbon poet and the founder of Home of Poetry, and spend your afternoons in one of the oldest demarcated wine regions in the world.
The week is for people who love words and a good glass of wine. Maybe you already write, or maybe you haven’t written a poem since school. Both are welcome here, and the group stays small, with up to 7 guests around the table.
Mornings belong to the workshop. Giacomo opens with a reading and a prompt, then leaves you time to write. Afternoons are slower, and you can walk the terraces or find a quiet corner of the house with your notebook.
Twice during the week we head out to a local quinta for a guided visit and tasting. You walk through the vineyards and taste the wine in the place where it grows. Both visits are included in the price, and the tastings are always optional.
Evenings end with dinner together at the long table. Sharing your work is always optional, and nobody grades anything. On the last night, anyone who wants to can read from their notebook with a glass of Douro wine in hand.
You go home with pages of writing and notes, and a sharper eye for the places you pass through.
Poetry is a way of paying attention.
The Timetable
Dates & Duration
- Dates — 28 March to 3 April 2027
- Season — early spring
- Duration — 7 Days / 6 Nights
- Group Size — 7 guests
- Status — Booking open
The Creation
What You’ll Carry Home
By Saturday you will have a notebook full of writing from the week. Some of it will be notes on the vineyards and the meals, and some may turn into poems. Giacomo helps you revise the pieces you want to keep, and you can bind a few of them into a handmade booklet to take home.
- Daily workshops with Giacomo, kept short and simple
- Selected poems to read together, chosen for the week
- Writing prompts you can keep using after the retreat
- A few pieces revised with Giacomo, and a handmade booklet if you choose to make one
A note on sharing. Reading your work aloud is always optional. Nobody is asked to share a poem they would rather keep.
The Sanctuary
Where You’ll Stay
Casa da Granja sits in the Douro Valley, among the terraced vineyards of the north. Every room is en suite, and you can keep one to yourself or share it with a friend. There is a quiet, naturally lit room for the workshops and for writing, and enough space around the house to be alone when you want to be. All meals are included.
- Region — Douro Valley, Northern Portugal
- Rooms — eight en suite rooms for a group of up to seven, yours alone or shared with a friend
- Dining — breakfast, lunch and dinner, with dietary requirements catered for
- Getting there — Porto is the nearest airport
Guided by People Who Care
Giacomo Boffi — Poet
Giacomo is a poet based in Lisbon. He founded Home of Poetry, a platform that brings people together around poems and the conversations they start. For him poetry is a way to belong somewhere and to say what is hard to say. It is also a way to get through a life. His own writing moves between the small and the very large. It looks at time and memory, and at how tender people can be.
He is also a professional educator and a professor of economics. In his teaching he uses the flipped classroom and problem-based learning, which is to say he prefers that you do the thing rather than listen to someone explain it. The workshops run the same way.
Hosted by TerraGo. Our retreats are fully curated with dedicated concierge hosts on site, taking care of all scheduling details, food setups, and translation support.
Inclusions
What the wine and poetry retreat includes
Included
- 6 nights at Casa da Granja, in a shared or private en suite room
- All workshops and readings with Giacomo throughout the week
- 2 guided quinta visits with wine tastings
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner
- Guided walks in the surrounding landscape
- Group transfers between Porto and the Douro Valley
- Notebook and pen, and the materials for your booklet
- Dedicated TerraGo concierge support
Not included
- Airfare to and from Portugal
- Comprehensive personal travel insurance
- Any optional activities outside the specified itinerary
The Journey
The Rhythm of The Week
You arrive on Sunday. The group transfer brings everyone up from Porto, and you meet the others over dinner.
Each morning from Monday starts with Giacomo’s workshop. On 2 afternoons we head out to a local quinta for a visit and tasting, and the other afternoons are free for writing or a walk through the vineyards.
On Friday, the last evening, anyone who wants to can read something they wrote to the group. The transfer takes everyone back to Porto on Saturday.
- Mornings — Workshop with Giacomo, about 3 hours of reading and writing.
- Afternoons — Free time at the house, plus 2 quinta visits with a tasting.
- Evenings — Dinner together, with an optional reading beforehand.
We send the detailed schedule a few days before the retreat starts.
Pricing
Pricing & Payment
- Price — from €2,250 per person for a shared room, available only to friends booking together, or €2,850 for a private room. Both include the room, meals and teaching
- Deposit — a deposit holds your place, with the balance due closer to the date
- Places — up to seven guests, so the week fills quickly
- Final balance — payable 90 days before the retreat start date
Further Reading
Before You Come
- Portugal for Makers, a Complete Travel Guide. How to get here and what a week in Portugal really costs.
- Craft Retreats in Europe in 2027 for Makers Traveling from the US. What the trip looks like if you are flying in from the US.
- What Actually Happens at a Knitting Retreat. The rhythm of a TerraGo week, told through our knitting retreats.
Other Retreats
- Colourwork Knitting Retreat in the Algarve. A week of colour by the Atlantic at Carrapateira, May 2027.
- Knit the Landscape. A week of colour in the dunes outside Bergen, September 2027.
Before You Book
What to Know First
This retreat is built for beginners. You do not need to have written a poem before, and you do not need to call yourself a poet.
- Experience — None needed. Come curious. If you already write, the week still gives you time and company.
- What you make — Pages of writing and notes from the week, some of which may become poems.
- Language — The retreat runs in English.
- On your feet — Optional walks through the vineyards and the village, on slopes and uneven ground. Everything else happens at the house.
- Getting there — Porto is the nearest airport. We run a group transfer and confirm the meeting point closer to the date.
- Rooms — Eight en suite rooms for a group of up to seven, yours alone or shared with a friend.
Not sure it is for you? Write to us and tell us what you want from the week.
