The Fladgate Partnership, owners of port houses Taylor’s, Fonseca, Croft and Delaforce is to open a luxury hotel and wine spa.
The Yeatman hotel in Vila Nova de Gaia, Oporto will open in 2009. It will have 84 rooms and will be built into the steep slopes of Gaia, where port has been stored and aged for centuries.
It will overlook the Duoro river and the UNESCO World Heritage city of Oporto.
This initiative is part a regeneration programme which is being developed by the Mayor of Oporto and Vila Nova de Gaia, Luis Filipe Menzes, to revitalise the old city.
Adrian Bridge, managing director of the Fladgate Partnership, told decanter.com that as port companies consolidated, warehouse space in Gaia stood empty.
‘We will be moving our ageing facility out to near the vineyards in the Duoro. This leaves Gaia to develop its tourism infrastructure, where visitors will still be able to see barrel ageing and the history of port, but will not be affected by lorries and delivery trucks.’
The wine spa, an idea that has proved popular at Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte in Bordeaux and at Marques de Riscal in Rioja, is the first of its kind in Portugal. It will be developed by the Fladgate Partnership itself, using products from its own vineyards.
Written by Jane Anson
