From wine newbies who can’t tell a Pinot Noir from a Pepsi, to wine bores terminally obsessed with terroir, Nick Harman finds that World of Wine in Porto offers a vinous good time to all comers…
Porto is, of course, famous for Port. For over three hundred years massive barrels of it were aged in the giant warehouses on the south bank of the Douro river. Then, in 2006, most of the big port houses joined forces to form The Fladgate Partnership (TFP) and decided to end bottling in the old warehouses.
This left a massive amount of space unused in the Vila Nova de Gaia, but TFP’s CEO Adrian Bridge had a singular vision. Under his direction, €105 million has been spent on reviving the area to create the ‘World of Wine’ – and the result is remarkable.
As I almost slide down the steep lane from the grand Yeatman Hotel – one of the first things TFP built – I can see a sea of warehouse roofs stepping down to the river, all now home to this vast enterprise, featuring state-of-the-art modern museums, twelve restaurants and bars, shops, a wine school and a gallery.
The view from the new main square across the Douro to Porto’s north side, and the remarkable 19th century Dom Luís I Bridge, designed by Eiffel, is well worth drinking in, especially after lunch in The Golden Catch nearby. It may sound like a Harrogate chip shop, but it is, in fact, a very good, modern fish restaurant.
So, suitably sated, it was off to the first museum, The Wine Experience, where the intent is to ‘demystify wine’ – although I am usually only mystified if I drink a whole bottle. I used to hate museums as a child, but this ultra-modern museum is very different. Here you travel through remarkable spaces that educate (in Portuguese and English) interactively about the great wine areas of the world, about soils, the life cycle of the grape, from pruning to harvest, and everything in between.
It’s never dry, always sparkling. I particularly liked an old Bedford van that sat in one of the rooms, and the ‘smell test’ room that teaches you how to recognise key aromas in wines. And, of course, there is a tutored wine tasting included in the ticket where, understandably, no one seemed to want to use the spittoon that’s been optimistically provided. Afterwards, I headed off to the Gift Shop to make some slightly wine-fuelled purchases to regret later.
Of course, WOW particularly celebrates Portuguese wines, and so it has a whole area laid out as a village complete with blue sky and cobbled streets, with each house a showcase for a region. It’s a brilliant recreation, as good as any film set. Many people don’t realise the massive variety of Portuguese wines, thinking only of Mateus Rosé and the wonderful ‘glonk glonk’ noise it makes as it pours, but there is much, much more. After all, Portugal has so many regions – and encompasses Madeira and the Azores, too.
Talking of rosé, the Pink Palace is a serious bit of fun. As well as tasting five different rosés you get to enjoy different pink experiences, including diving into a pool of pink balls for your Instagram. It’s a great example how WOW educates without being pedagogic, and both small and big kids love it, and the complimentary WiFi throughout WOW means you can amuse your friends back home as you dive in.
You might think a museum dedicated to cork – Porto is the cork capital of Portugal – would be a bit boring, even for adults, but ‘Planet Cork’ bobbed far above my cynical expectations. From the giant cork tree at the entrance, complete with sound effects, to the exhibits that show how cork is even used by NASA, it was all very entertaining and informative.
Still on my aching feet – it’s probably best to allow yourself two days to see, eat and drink everything – I wandered into ‘The Chocolate Experience by 20|20’ to mingle with rather excited children, and a lot of keen adults. Twenty Twenty’, by the way, refers to the geographical location of the ‘cocoa belt’.
A series of cleverly intertwined spaces tell the story of chocolate, its origins and its importance in Mesoamerican cultures. There’s a working factory making chocolate treats, and even a great exhibition of old TV ads for chocolate, and afterwards you can sample sinful chocolate creations at the chocolate café. I particularly loved the tutored tasting of fine chocolate from around the world, matched with different ports, with Director and Master Chocolatier Pedro Araújo, aka Dr Bean.
Thus, I left rich with chocolate knowledge, slightly woozy from the Port, with some indelible chocolate stains on my shirt and one fact complementing my chocolate knowledge emblazoned on my memory; Cadbury’s Dairy Milk may actually have less chocolate in it than a Penguin biscuit.
Needless to say, I could just about manage dinner that night at 1828 restaurant, a very classy spot in the Cultural Centre. Here, a grand room serves a vast selection of cuts of meat from Leon, Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia and northern Portugal, and a tasting menu has two pairing options; one with still wines – a journey through the country’s wine regions – or with young Vintage Ports, of course. After dinner, some drinks in Angel’s Share, a gorgeous bar offering views of Porto by night, put paid to my day and made the ascent back up to The Yeatman rather hard going.
Going back down the hill the next day, I’d found a sneaky route that descended the hill via the car park lifts, to emerge Batman-like from a secret cave. I was off to the museum that tells the history of the Porto region. This is another feast of interactivity and modern storytelling that covers a massive amount of ground, quite literally, so I was thankful for the more comfortable shoes I’d opted for.
Among all the history, sampling and information of its production I could learn about viticulture, what would wine be without something to drink it from? Thankfully, World of Wine also features the Art Of Drinking museum. Featuring some 2,500 artefacts from prehistoric terracotta vessels to stylish contemporary glassware, it is a centuries-old story of how alcohol has been used for rituals, religious ceremonies, celebrations and commemorations, and I must say was quite the tour into how this ubiquitous substance is so deeply woven into the fabric of societies across the globe.
My last ritual was to try the famous Francensinha sandwich at the institution that is T&C restaurant. Created from the old Croft cellars it comes complete with giant barrels that seat groups. For the uninitiated, Francensinha is rump steak in a sandwich, with sausage, fried egg, french fries, all submerged in Porto tomato sauce. And it’s an absolute killer. Suffice to say, do not plan any long museum touring after one of those.
Before long, it was time to leave the World of Wine. Educated, enervated and satiated, and with a throbbing headache that I’d become almost fond of, I gathered all my gift shop purchases, my Port and Chocolate tasting kit (that’s one Christmas present sorted), and set sail.
I’d like to say World of Wine has the WOW factor, but I tend to avoid cliches like the plague. It certainly is another very good reason to visit Porto and makes a great stop before heading out to the beautiful Douro valley as part of a wider tour.
A Daily Ticket to WOW, which gets you unlimited access to the museums, is €44. For more information, please visit www.wow.pt.
For more information about The Yeatman, including details of their WOW package, please visit www.the-yeatman-hotel.com.
