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Caption: Porto Portugal
Picture of WOW Porto - The Cultural District
Caption: A peek inside a wine barrel that I was able to walk inside at WOW, Portugal’s Wine Experience, which aims to demystify wine for all.
Picture of WOW Porto - The Cultural District
Caption: Definitely immerse yourself in the world of cacao in The Chocolate Story experience at WOW. Here, you can see the end product of The Chocolate Story and my hard work at the porto and chocolate tasting workshop.
Video of Vila Nova de Gaia
Caption: The cups, goblets, vases, ewers, and other drinking vessels cover 9,000 years of drinking. I saw Chinese blackware, alabaster from Mesopotamia, and pottery from Canaan — and that’s just from the 3rd century B.C.E. (Wine in Canaan? I wanted to call Sister Margaret and talk about Jesus’s first water-to-wine miracle.) Learn more here.
Picture of Pink Palace - Museu do Rosé
Caption: This museum experience is dedicated to rosé wine with photo-ready stations set up with wine bottles you can climb into, beach umbrellas you can lounge under, vertical garden walls with pink flowers, a vintage pink Cadillac you can pretend to drive, and a pink ball pit with flamingoes and watermelons? Well, this one is a little silly, and perhaps best enjoyed at happy hour (you get several glasses of rosé along the tour) or else skipped altogether if, like me, you’re allergic to spaces that seem to have been created purely for their Instagram value. (Yes, okay, I got into the pool and even took selfies, but I sure as hell didn’t share them anywhere.) Learn more here.
Picture of Barão Flagate
Caption: The best meal I ate was not at one of the dozen WOW outlets, but rather on the terrace at Barão Fladgate, the fine-dining restaurant upstairs from the Taylor’s Port cellars, which I had toured earlier in the day. The meal was refined and wonderful, but the elaborate port wine pairing meant I forgot to take any notes. The grounds are lovely, and I was entertained by a peahen mothering her trio of chicks in the garden, though even more so by the arrogant rooster who strolled among the tables, stopping only to admire his reflection in a mirror. (True.)
Picture of WOW Porto - The Cultural District
Caption: You know what I didn’t expect to care about so much? Cork. Turns out this tree is a wonder, and will probably help save the world from its imminent destruction. Why do I say that? Because its bark not only totally regenerates every nine years, but one tree can absorb about 14 million tonnes of CO2 every year — 3-5 times more than what a regular tree can do — and can live up to 200 years. Portugal produces 55 percent of the world’s cork, a number that keeps rising, which is no bad thing because, in addition to those aforementioned qualities, cork is 100 percent natural, recyclable, renewable, and nothing in the plant is wasted. Learn more about this trip here.
Picture of The Yeatman Hotel
Caption: In 2010, The Fladgate Partnership opened The Yeatman Hotel, the only luxury hotel and spa in Vila Nova, into the hillside just uphill from WOW. As expected, the wine theme is strong, starting with the welcome at check-in: We were greeted with a glass of Taylor’s Chip Dry port. It was only 10 a.m., but we couldn’t risk insulting our hosts. So for good measure, we asked for seconds. (When in Porto...) The terraced landscaping evokes the terroir of the Douro Valley vineyards. The pool, which boasts incredible views onto Porto, is shaped like a wine decanter. All 109 rooms and suites are named for Portuguese wines and most have terraces and views onto Porto