Exploring the World of Wine (WOW) near Porto!

Just across the bridge from Porto is the World Of Wine, or WOW. Despite the name, this modern complex is actually home to seven museums, with four of them being centred around port, wine or drinking. I obviously had to go. 

As well as museums, WOW is also home to shops, restaurants and bars, but for the purposes of this blog post I’ll just be talking about the museums.  

I needed a bit of a break from the sun so I opted for a day pass, which let me visit as many museums as I wanted for 40 Euros. Whilst that might seem quite steep, I was there for a good seven hours and I got round five of the museums. You don’t have to purchase a day pass though – you can buy tickets for each museum individually or you can buy discounted ticket ‘packs’ for visiting 2, 3, and 5 museums too. (You can find the full range of tickets available on the WOW website here).

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Museums on the WOW site

The museums on the site include the following (in order of visiting):

• Porto Region Through the Ages
• The Art of Drinking – The Bridge Collection
• The Wine Experience
• Planet Cork
• Pink Palace
• The Chocolate Story (I had previously visited Choco-Story in Bruges and a chocolate factory in Ecuador so gave this one a miss!)
• The Atkinson Museum – sadly I ran out of time so also had to give this one a miss.

All of the museums I visited were wonderfully elegant affairs with soft music that complemented the experience without being intrusive.

Getting to WOW from Porto

If you’re staying in Porto it’s easy to get to WOW. It’s just over the Dom Luís bridge and a short walk away. (If you only fancy doing one or two of the museums and then exploring nearby Gaia, that’s an option too – you can read about what I got up to in Gaia here).

 

 

Learn something new at Porto Region Through the Ages

I started off by visiting Porto Region Through the Ages. The museum was a lot more modern than I was expecting (in fact, all of the museums on the WOW site were very modern). There was also no-one else there when I visited – an added bonus. 

The museum starts by covering the geography and agriculture of Porto, before moving on to its history, from humble beginnings as a 1st century village to the beautiful city it is today.

Other than the Middle Ages section (where I was struggling to keep track of who was who), the museum was absolutely fascinating. It uses lots of different storytelling methods, from short films about the 1809 Battle of Oporto, to arty audiovisual projections about the Portuguese Civil War. Having all these different media available really helped me absorb a huge amount of information in a short space of time. 

 

 

Learn about drinking vessels at The Art of Drinking – The Bridge Collection

It was still early when I left Porto Region Through the Ages so my next stop was The Bridge Collection, which celebrates 9,000 years of drinking. That’s a lot of drinking!

Now I’ve been burned before. I’ve been to a few similarly-themed museums where all there is to look at are rows and rows of boring porcelain teapots in glass cabinets. With that in mind, I was fully prepared to see rows and rows of boring porcelain cups in glass cabinets. I planned to have a quick whizz round just to say I’d been, and then move on to something else. 

Now to be fair, this museum does have a lot of drinking vessels behind glass, but this place was way more interesting than I thought it would be! I found out so many cool facts – I didn’t realise that people made disposable cups 3000 years ago for example – except instead of polystyrene or paper, they were made out of clay. Now there’s a fun fact for your next pub quiz!

The exhibit begins with examples of drinking vessels throughout the ages, beginning with the Jōmon period of Japan. As well as lots of different types of drinking vessels (including some gorgeous Murano glass), I appreciated that the museum actually put drinking into context, and how glassware was created and used in societies throughout history. I particularly enjoyed learning about some of the customs that hosts used to build trust between themselves and their guests… and seeing some examples of drinkware designed to avoid getting poisoned! (I’m not sure how many of them would have actually worked though…)

My favourite parts included learning about the materials and techniques used to create all the different colours and styles of glass. Turning on the UV lights to see the uranium glassware glow was fun, too!

 

At that point I was ready for a drink, and where else to go but The Wine Experience.

 

 

Sample some fine wine at The Wine Experience

Similar to Porto Region Through the Ages, the museum begins by explaining why the Douro region of Porto is so good for winemaking, and how the different compositions of soil can influence the taste of wine.

Throughout the museum you learn about the entire winemaking process, from growing the seeds to cultivating the vines, from harvesting the grapes to making all the different varieties of wine. One room even takes you inside the barrel making-process (I got amazing ASMR vibes from the sound of the crackling fire toasting the barrel). I learned loads – for example, I didn’t realise that most of the aromatic compounds of grapes are found in their skins, and also that there is actually a difference between wine grapes and grapes you get from the supermarket. (I perhaps should have known that already – it’s just something I have never really thought about!)

I also appreciated that whilst informative, the museum didn’t take itself totally seriously – for example, there’s a quiz you can do to find out ‘which grape you are’. It reminded me of some of the old Buzzfeed quizzes which were totally silly but you did them anyway. (I got Arinto by the way).

 

There’s also a really cool interactive section about taste and smell – and your perception of both. In one area you’re asked to hold your nose and try a jellybean. Without letting go of your nose, you then have to try and work out what flavour it is. I had no idea – I knew it was sweet but not much else. And then when I let go – boom – coconut!

 

Tasting time!

Finally we got to the best bit – the tasting. Once enough people had gathered, we were taken into a room and given a red and white wine to taste. We got shown how to aerate the wine (which does actually really change the smell, surprisingly!) and how to taste it. The experience does make you feel like you kind of know what you’re doing – even if you don’t! The wine was delicious and we also got some port to finish off with.

Learn about the wonderful world of cork at Planet Cork

Following the three samples of wine I’d just had, I thought I had better take a bit of a breather before visiting Pink Palace (aka the rosé wine museum). Luckily, Planet Cork was nearby. Yes, it’s a museum about cork. As in, the material that goes into wine bottles. Turns out Portugal is known for its cork, too.

I didn’t spend too long at Planet Cork as I was conscious time was marching on, but I really enjoyed my time here. It also smelled lovely too (I guess of cork?!)

 

Before coming here, I had never really thought about where cork comes from (trees) and how it is harvested (in nine-year cycles). Some of the fun things you can do at Planet Cork include going through a mini cork-stopper-making factory, walking down a catwalk where you can see some cork clothing, and finding out how cork is used for movie explosions! 

You can even pay a euro and get some letters of your choosing printed onto a cork. I just had to get one of course. 

Take some photos at Pink Palace

I’m going to be honest, halfway round Pink Palace I stopped taking notes and started taking pictures because hoo boy I got tipsy very quickly and knew I wouldn’t remember much otherwise.

 

I’m still not quite sure if I’d call Pink Palace a museum, but whatever it is, it is a heck of a lot of fun. Basically it’s a museum about rosé wine – with lots of fun photo opportunities thrown in. In each section you get to try a different rosé and are given information about where it comes from and how it’s made. Also in each section is a different photo opportunity. You can sit in a pink Cadillac in one section, come out of giant wine bottle in another, and jump in a bright pink ball pit in another! 

 

I ended up drinking the final sample, a rosé port, in a saloon setting with honky tonk music in the background. Happy but confused, I stumbled into the gift shop, and from there out into the street with a bottle of port in hand. Basically, if you want to have a good time, learn a bit more about rosé wine and take some fun photographs along the way, this is the place for you. 10/10 experience, would recommend!