Austin Beeman

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The Wine School | WOW Porto | José Sá Director

Austin Beeman

🍇 Embark on a Wine Adventure with José Sá at WOW Porto's Wine School 🍷

An exclusive interview with José Sà, the visionary director of The Wine School at WOW (World of Wine) in Porto. Immerse yourself in a world where old Port storage houses have been transformed into a vibrant cultural hub. At the heart of WOW, José shares his philosophy that understanding wine is primarily about knowing your personal taste. The Wine School serves as a unique bridge between the wine industry and enthusiasts, offering an insightful journey into the rich variety of Portuguese wines and the art of wine pairing with local cuisine.

I hope you enjoy this 6 minute video interview.

THIS IS EPISODE 99 OF UNDERSTANDING WINE WITH AUSTIN BEEMAN

SPECIAL THANKS:

TRANSCRIPT:

Note: Transcript was created by a third party service and I’ve endeavored to clean up the spelling of ‘wine words’ and non-english words. Any persistent errors are mine alone.

Or, watch the video. It is awesome.

José Sá:

90% of knowing about wines is knowing what you like.

My name is José, I'm the director for the wine school. Basically, the project started as the WOW, the World of Wine, to make an option, to make something better for people to do when they traveled to Porto. We were in a area that was not very safe, was full of old storage houses for Port lodges that most of them were no longer being used and nowadays is all new cultural complex.

WOW offers a lot of experiences, seven museums, more than 12 restaurants. You have two Port lodges with a lot of history to visit, Taylor's and Fonseca. The wine school is one more dot in the line of the goal of the World of Wine. We work as let's say, a translator from the wine industry to the consumer, or to the wine professionals. Basically, our goal is to demystify wine, make wine knowledge, more accessible to everyone else.

What can we offer? You can go to the wine experience and understand the reasons why you like this wine. And we can help you tweaking what is the vocabulary that you can use in further experiences to make others understand what you like in terms of wine. Because we believe that is the challenge most of the times when you go to a restaurant, a hotel, a wine bar, is to make the other person understand what are you looking for. You can go to the wine experience and know about what you like and understanding the why. You can go to one of our restaurants and do a wine pairing exercise with food.

And you have an option, you have an experience of pair Portuguese gastronomy with our Portuguese wines. And you have another layer of complexity that will unveil to you because Portuguese wines more than 200 native varietals. We have a lot to offer in terms of heritage and culture.

Then of course, you can come to the wine school to tweak, to understand in terms of what you like, what Portugal has to offer. Because let's face it, one of the challenges of Portuguese wines is to be known outside of Portugal, to be understood outside of Portugal. It's not easy to understand what is a Cornifesto or what is a Rabigato in terms of grape varieties, because that's something that you only will find in Portugal. That will be a great itinerary for someone that is already looking for wines. Then you can go and visit 500 years of history visiting a Port lodge, Taylor's or Fonseca.

At the wine school, we want to be a neutral space for all the wine industry, Portuguese or international to come here and to talk, discuss, to everyone learn something about wines. With that in mind, we have something between 70 wine references Portuguese, plus 50 something international wine references that we are always changing from iconic classical producers or small boutique newcomers to the industry.

Wines should be, and they are, fun and interesting. And sometimes the industry and ourselves, we tend to make it harder than it should be. At the end of the day, we believe that wine is a pleasure that we should all have. And with learning or with more educational about it, you'll have better experience. That's our belief and that's how we connect with WOW. With this learning experience point in a very relaxed, fun and a very technical approach as well.

WOW is a neutral complex, open to everyone and with a lot of things to offer. I think the most important thing to know is this is a open space that you can come visit and when you arrive, you can choose from everything that we have to offer what you want to do. You can have a more tailor-made, exclusive, private experience, or you can have a more relaxed walking by walking basis experience with us. I think this is the most important, this is a cultural complex.

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EQUIPMENT:

Main Camera: Canon R8

2nd Camera: DJi Pocket 2

Mic:  Audio Technica AT875R

Travel Bag: Peak Design Travel Line Backpack 45L.

Camera Bag:  Peak Design Everyday Messenger Bag.

Music Licensed from Epidemic Sound.


FTC Compliance: WOW Porto, the Fladgate Partnership, and Wagstaff Marketing were important partners in the production of this video. This is not sponsored. See more.