Wine tourism.Wow: Porto's new trendy neighborhood is a 35,000 m2 tribute to the world of wine
Luxury.A spa excavated in a marble quarry: the jewel of this Alentejo hotel
Porto is a city of classics.
From the Don Luis I bridge, built by a disciple of
Gustave Eiffel,
to the trams, the
ancient wineries,
the clothes hanging in the sun on the balconies or the popular
confeitarias
(patisseries), with their
cream cakes
cramming the decadent air windows , but very charming.
However, the second city of Portugal (Lisbon doubles its inhabitants, 216,000) not only lives off the revenues of the past, but is also betting on an
artistic
, architectural and culinary
renewal
.
The latest example that brings together so many vertices is World of Wine (Wow), the new cultural neighborhood on the other side of the Duero, in Vila Nova de Gaia.
It is situated right next to
The Yeatman
, the Relais & Chateaux dedicated to wine with the best views of the city, a
Michelin star restaurant
and the largest Portuguese wine cellar in the world.
Not surprisingly, it belongs to the same owner as Wow,
Adrian Bridge
, the English businessman who came to the country 25 years ago to revolutionize the world of wine from his three wineries,
Taylor's, Croft and Fonseca.
An ode to the world of wine
Now it does the same with the
cultural panorama
of Porto, since the aim of Wow is "to offer something different to
locals and tourists,
so that they not only stay two days, the average, but also a third."
This is how he devised this 35,000 square meter City of Wine built on old wineries "in which
150 million euros have been invested
and which generates 350 direct jobs."
Suite at The Yeatman hotel with a barrel-shaped bed.
The protagonist is the elixir of Bacchus, but it goes further.
Therefore, although the jewel in the crown is its
Wine Museum
(The Wine Experience), it has another five dedicated to chocolate (with pairings included; its name is The Chocolate Story), cork (Portugal is the largest producer in the world ; it's called Planet Cork), the history of Porto (Prata or Porto Region Across the Ages), design and fashion (Porto Fashion & Fabric Museum) and the
collection of 1,500 glasses
from the Bridge itself.
«9,000 years of the art of drinking go through.
The oldest is a Japanese vessel from 7,000 BC and there are containers that were used in
funeral rituals
or to poison the enemy in the Roman Empire, ”explains the guide Susana Vilas Boas.
The
cuisine
is another of the props Wow, eight gourmet restaurants, seafood, Portuguese, vegetarian or sweet food and desserts.
Missing the
Angel's Share
wine bar
with live music,
thematic shops
, event rooms, the
future School of Wine
... A real city, we already said.
Root & Wine vegetarian restaurant in the new Wow neighborhood.
The streets of design and art
The most modern side of Porto is also palpable around the
Cedofeita and Miguel Bombarda
streets
,
the first known for its design and the second for being the street with the most art galleries in Europe, with more than twenty.
Here's a sample:
Presença, Quadrado Azul, Serpente or Cru
, where Virginia França brings together "exhibitions with alternative fashion, signature jewelery and a coworking space for young creators."
We are in the typical neighborhood run down until
gentrification
arrived
and now life-long haberdasheries coexist with the aforementioned galleries,
vintage
clothing stores
, architecture studios,
boutique hotels
, avant-garde restaurants,
concept stores.
.. Of these we are left with
Early Made,
a design space where the brothers Emanuel and Patricia Sousa give voice to brands produced in Portugal at the same time as they organize
pop-ups
about coffee or "
artistic residencies
in the Black Box multipurpose room of ground floor ”, says the male partner.
Interior of the barrel room of Taylor's winery.
The area also stands out for the
urban art
that splashes its facades and that serves to take the new pulse of the city.
The movement is led by
Hazel from Porto,
who has been compared to
the British Banksy, a
master graffiti artist par excellence.
The street art expands to Aliados Avenue, the Batalla and Trindade squares or
the Rua das Flores
, full of design hotels, trendy restaurants and cafes and shops of independent firms or local crafts.
Five euros to enter a bookstore
But as we pointed out at the beginning, Porto is a city of classics, so it is a must to follow its trail between fado taverns, cobbled streets or centuries-old bookstores such as
Lello and Irmão
, opened in 1906 on the elegant
Rua das Carmelitas
.
Today, the queues to enter at any time are endless.
And that you
have to pay five euros,
which is discounted, yes, from the purchase of a book.
The reason?
It is one of the most beautiful in the world thanks to its neo-Gothic decoration, which begins with the winding passion red staircase at the entrance.
There is more.
Views of the Don Luis I bridge from Vila Nova de Gaia.
They say that the writer
JK Rowling
was inspired by her during the years she lived in Porto to set the
Florish & Blotts
of her
Harry Potter.
A hoax because the author herself has denied it.
But it's the same.
People keep waiting up to two hours to set foot in it.
Where Rowling was seen is at the legendary
art nouveau-
style
Café Majestic
(also one of the most beautiful in the world) on
Rua Santa Caterina,
one of the most commercial.
"She sat alone at the back table to write and listen to the piano," says the waiter Vasco Costa, pointing to the corner next to the
dessert cabinet
and the back terrace.
Once here, you have to order "torrijas with dried fruits, the house specialty", as Costa well adds.
The list of essentials with tradition ends in the characteristic facades sculpted with
blue and white tiles
in houses, museums, churches (San Ildefonso, the Capilla de las Almas, el Carmen ...), the
San Bento train station
or the House of Music designed by the Dutch Rem Koolhaas.
Be careful, to admire the ceramics of these last two, you have to go inside.
The fashion for the blue and white combo was imposed, by the way, by
Manuel I of Portugal,
who brought the tiles from Seville in the 15th century.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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