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The official ceremony was held on November 10th, at the Gala Dinner that closed the Great Wine Capitals Annual General Meeting, that Porto hosted this year, under the theme “Wine & Nature”.Porto Best Of Wine Tourism 2017
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It took place at the beautiful São Bento da Vitória Monastery, in the presence of distinguished guests including delegates from all the network’s regions [Adelaide, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Cape Town, Mainz, Mendoza, Porto, San Francisco, Valparaiso and Verona], as well as official representatives, trade and media.
Porto’s winners of the excellence awards Best Of Wine Tourism 2017 in the different categories are:
Regional winner in Wine Tourism Services
The family-made Ports and Douro DOC wines may be sampled with guided tastings in several languages by knowledgeable guides in the spacious and attractive tasting room. There is an adjoining terrace with wonderful views of the Douro River and the surrounding vineyards. Visitors can pass through the visitor centre where a wide selection of Port and dry Douro wines made by the Symington family are available.
Monverde Wine Experience Hotel
Regional winner in “Accommodation”
As part of Quinta da Lixa, one of the country’s largest Vinho Verde producers, the new hotel can be found in an area of 30 ha, 22 of which are vineyards. It is enveloped in an environment of earthy colours where the magnitude of wine, land, climate, and tradition are conspicuous in every detail, surrounded by the objects exclusive to work in the vineyard, emerging as sculptural elements that design the hotel, some of them lost in time. The activities that ensure interaction between nature, vineyards, wines and the visitors cover the entire year.
Regional winner in “Wine Tourism Restaurants”
Quinta da Pacheca’s ex-libris, The Wine House Hotel is one of the Douro’s best-known country house hotels. With the vineyard and wine as its inspiration and environment, it is devoted to gastronomic and wine tourism, combining a modern image with sobriety and elegance. The wine House Hotel’s restaurant is worth a visit on its own and an amazing gastronomic experience. With elegant, modern and sober decoration, its main area allows you to embrace the river with the view and immediately enjoy one of the best offers in the region.
Alves de Sousa – Quinta da Gaivosa
Regional winner in “Architecture and Landscapes”
The strategy for the winery building took into consideration the role of the landscape, but simultaneously balanced with a simple but strong architecture, creating a new ‘atmosphere’ functional but generating surprise and complexity (… as the wine).
The brand Alves de Sousa wants to be associated with total ‘wine experience’ … from the wine to the bottle, the landscape to architecture, and tradition to innovation.
Regional winner in “Art and Culture”
The Douro Museum’s duties of interpretation and communication go beyond the exhibitions, linking a variety of activities which appeal to other forms of artistic and cultural expression, and to other spaces for get-togethers, for cultural practices and for receiving people. Its calendar is regularly enriched, whether with projects developed in partnership with other institutions that encompass a range of marketing activities and tourist entertainment in Douro, or by being the promoter of cultural projects of artistic and creative interventions in urban spaces and historic centres.
Regional winner in “Innovative Wine Tourism Experiences”
Visitors are allowed to engage the countryside aromas and discover how award-winning wines are produced, following the traditional rite of grapes from harvest to traditional foot treading in stone tanks (lagares) in the wine cellar. Currently it’s possible to perform experiences that emphasize harmony between nature, the wines and the local cuisine. To promote and offer some of these activities partnerships were developed with different companies, such as restaurants, hotels, tourist entertainment and radical activities. In this way visitors are offered the best of the region, with complete and unforgettable experiences.
Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo
Regional winner in “Sustainable Wine Tourism Practices”
In this recognized Wine Tourism project visitors arrive into the 18th century manor house, hosting a boutique wine hotel with 11 rooms facing the landscape. The classic details of the service, schist and local woods coating the spaces and Portuguese carpets and pottery beautifying the rooms are accompanied by the team´s care that welcomes everyone with a smile. The visitor´s centre, schist coated and with an interior view of the aging room, is the end point for winetours and proposes several tastings paired with wines and local daily tapas. It’s a panoramic room next to a terrace facing the river and vineyards, a stunning landscape declared World Heritage by UNESCO.
The ceremony went on with the International Awards, whose winners were selected by an international jury among the local winners of each Great Wine Capitals region. Concerning Porto region, this distinction was given to Quinta do Bomfim.
About the Great Wine Capitals Global Network
Founded in 1999, the Great Wine Capitals Global Network is an alliance of ten internationally renowned wine regions – Adelaide, South Australia; Bordeaux, France; Cape Town, South Africa; Mainz|Rheinhessen, Germany; Mendoza, Argentina; Porto, Portugal; Bilbao|Rioja, Spain, Valparaiso|Casablanca Valley, San Francisco|Napa Valley, USA and Verona, Italy. The Best Of Wine Tourism awards are an industry benchmark for excellence, recognising leading wineries and wine-tourism related businesses within each Great Wine Capital that have distinguished themselves in areas such as innovation, service and sustainable practices. For more information visit www.greatwinecapitals.com.
