The terrace dining area at Tivoli Kopke Porto Gaia Hotel.Supplied
Portugal’s second city is booming. Porto’s economy is invigorated by a vibrant tech sector and visitors lured by its historic charm and welcoming hospitality. At the same time, sales of fortified wine, including port, continue to decline, in part due to a generational lack of understanding of the range of styles and how they can be enjoyed. Porto’s newest five-star destination, the Tivoli Kopke Porto Gaia Hotel, operated by Tivoli Hotels & Resorts and Kopke, the region’s oldest port wine house, aims to change that, channelling the city’s new energy into a revival of its signature drink.
Tapping into tourism to keep the port business going isn’t new. The region’s port lodges on the Douro River’s south bank have long attracted the attention of tourists and connoisseurs. Opened in August, 2010, the Yeatman Hotel kick-started a new wine-centric approach. Located next to cellars belonging to Taylor’s, Croft and Fonseca, brands owned by the Fladgate Partnership, the Yeatman’s 82 luxurious rooms and suites were designed to amplify the region’s charms while providing a sumptuous food and wine experience.
The property’s terraced structure is inspired by vineyards further inland that provide Kopke and other brands owned by the Sogevinus Group with the grapes for their range of wines.Supplied
In 2020, the Fladgate Partnership also added the World of Wine to the neighbourhood, a complex featuring interactive museums, restaurants and shops where visitors can learn about and sample wine. Tivoli Kopke, in Vila Nova de Gaia, continues the immersive trend, its 149-rooms integrated into Kopke’s historic cellars and warehouses.
Dillip Rajakarier, the CEO of Minor Hotels, parent company of Tivoli Hotels & Resorts, says the property aspires to connect guests “with the world of port wine in a very exclusive way.” Accommodation options include 10 spacious suites and five skylight rooms plus lodgings with private terraces. Windows look onto postcard views of the hotel’s extensive gardens and the jumble of medieval, baroque and 19th-century architecture in Porto’s historic centre. Inside, wine touches every turn of a property spread across three wings – Vintage, Tawny and White – named for the wine styles produced by Kopke, which was founded in 1638.
The property’s terraced structure is inspired by vineyards further inland that provide Kopke and other brands owned by the Sogevinus Group with the grapes for their range of wines, connecting the varied growing and cellaring environments necessary for port production. Producers established cellars for aging wine in the area around the hotel to escape the temperature fluctuations of the warmer vineyard landscape. The cooler conditions help fortified wines mature gracefully, allowing brands such as Kopke to release inventory after decades of aging. (It also offers a gentle sea breeze to cool summer guests enjoying the hotel gardens and swimming pool.)
The pool, where a breeze from the sea cools guests down.Supplied
Visitors learn all of this in Kopke’s cellar, which ages and stores more than two million litres of fortified wine and hosts guest experiences. But to rebuild port’s fan base, the hotel gets creative. Spa experiences include massages with warmed schist stones from Douro vineyards and treatments use grape-derived scrubs and lotions to buff and soothe.
Its bartenders also breathe new life into Kopke’s lineup. Fortified wines are traditionally served as an aperitif or after-dinner drink, but they can also be cleverly mixed into cocktails. A glass of dry white port on its own may be an acquired taste but a sip of a port and tonic or the hotel’s reimagined Caipirinha cocktail (with white port in place of cachaça) is sure to win over skeptics.
Stays from €220/night through tivolihotels.com.