The Wine House: Where wines are taught in Coimbra

The Portugal News (TPN): How do you describe your personal and academic journey?

Sara Matos (SM): My academic background was not wine, so much so that I have a degree in international relations from the Faculty of Economics in Coimbra and then I did a master's degree in tourism in Aveiro.

When I was finishing the master's degree in tourism, my advisor, Professor Carlos Costa, was working with the Bairrada Commission to create a tourism plan for the region. And it was there that he met, among other people, who would become my future boss, engineer Luís Pato. As the engineer was looking for someone to work not only in tourism, but also in other areas, Professor Carlos Costa recommended me to Luís Pato.

At this point I knew absolutely nothing about wine, and I was 27 years old. He recommended me and I spoke to Luís Pato and started working with him, and I was there for 9 years. So, I basically had a school, where every day I asked questions of someone who was very recognized and had a lot of value in the sector.

During this journey I completed a postgraduate degree in oenology because it was easy to fall in love with wine. Not only because I was working with wine directly, but because everything about wine immediately seemed highly fascinating and one thread pulled on another thread. In that sense, I did my postgraduate studies at the Catholic University, in Porto, then I did a harvest in Australia, at the time I thought I was going to be a winemaker, but I changed my mind after going to Australia.

TPN: What happened in Australia that led you to give up the winemaking profession?

SM: When I worked with Luís Pato, my physical presence was very important, that is, I needed to be in the cellar to do my work because it made visits and simple things easier, like answering the phone or liaising with the warehouse.

So, I felt the need to leave, because I wanted to do other things, almost like when we leave our parents' house, it feels good to be there, but we want other things. As I had to be physically there, I felt the need to find a job where I could travel more and I did that at Lavradores de Feitoria (https://www.lavradoresdefeitoria.pt/en/) , as I worked in exports I traveled more.

When I realized I was going through a harvest in Australia, that once again it was work, very tied to the cellar that forced me to be geographically in the same place, very much in the same place.

TPN: What differences did you notice between Australian and Portuguese wine production?

SM: The differences can be seen right from the vineyard, I mean there are techniques they use in the vineyard, for example, in this area where I was is called Yarra Valley (https://www.visityarravalley.com.au/) , close to Melbourne, they have a problem called Phylloxera (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylloxera) . It is a disease that attacked Europe in the 19th century, destroyed a large part of the vineyards there and it is a disease that still exists, but here it is controlled for several reasons and there it continues to be a problem. For example, before putting on our boots we had to pass them through a treatment product to avoid spreading the disease to the other vines.

There are big differences, from viticulture to the way they process in the winery. Including care with water, for example. At the time, all it took was for one of us to play a little with the water and we were immediately called to account.

TPN: And was it from there that the desire to create The Wine House arose?

SM: Actually, maybe that was something that grew with me, with my connection with Luís Pato.

As a salesperson, I thought I was better at sharing my passion than necessarily closing deals. Therefore, I did this in my work, explaining to people how wines were characterized. I thought, “I'm going to talk about this variety, I must know what this variety is, I must understand this variety well. I’m going to talk about how this wine is made, I must understand this production method well.”

It was in 2020 that I opened The Wine House school in Coimbra here. I have been working with wine for almost 18 years, which is part of my professional life, but also in my personal life.

As I usually say, the school came about a bit as a selfish project because I really like studying. School is an excuse for me to study so that I can then teach and talk about what I studied.

TPN: Did the pandemic cause any difficulties in starting school activities?

SM: It was a very turbulent start, although it happened at the right time. I opened the school in January 2020, therefore, 2 months before the first lockdown, and I perfectly remember the last course I hosted here, a week before the confinement. I had a full room with around 20 people and the following week everything was empty.

People said I had to reinvent myself, but it was impossible, as I had just invented myself. I was always irritated by the fact that I couldn't teach the courses, and I took a break during the first confinement. I did not do anything because I did not want to host any online course, as I did not like the idea of distance learning.

During the second confinement, I gave in and started taking more online courses and created the wine club, which still exists today.

TPN: What is the Wine Club?

SM: The Wine Club is a monthly subscription, in which I choose the wines according to the subscribers' tastes. It's not the same box for everyone and it's based a lot on the philosophy I have at school and especially on the first course that I recommend that everyone always takes, Wine Games, as people need to discover why they like wines. they like.

TPN: How do you convey a person's personality to a wine, to the point of being able to understand their tastes?

SM: It is during the courses that I start to envision it. For example, the fact that I like yellow doesn't mean I hate black. I can like yellow and I can like black and sometimes it happens that a person likes 2 completely different styles. In this sense, at Wine Games we carry out a genetic test that evaluates, for example, sensitivity to bitter taste. From there, the group is divided into three types of people, those who feel bitter and find it horrible. The people that feel it but it doesn't bother them and therefore these are the people most open to experimentation. And those people here don't feel anything, the so-called tolerant ones, who need much more intense wines.

TPN: During your courses it is impossible to just talk about wine, right?

SM: We have 2 types of courses, those created by me and courses from WSET, an English entity that is the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, which grants various certifications to schools around the world.

In my courses, students are always hearing me draw parallels between wine and people. When it comes to the aging of wines, when it comes to why we like certain wines or why we like certain people. But obviously wine adds everything else during your study. It brings together everything about geology, soils, microbiology, fermentations, etc.

TPN: What do you think of the phrase “wine is saved for special people and not for special occasions”?

SM: Now I got goosebumps (laughs), it's funny, the first thing I thought of was the wine fridge I have at home. I have a 6-year-old son and my goal is to fill that fridge with wines from the year he was born, 2017, and offer him the entire fridge as soon as he turns 18 years old.

So, I think you can do beautiful things with wine. As for wines being for special people, in theory, I know that there are wines that if I open with certain people, they won't get the recognition that I would like to have for sharing something like that, which sometimes has an expensive bottle, a bottle I brought from some trip.

Therefore, it is necessary to choose the audience for whom a particular bottle is opened, it is true.

TPN: In addition to The Wine House, do you have other projects?

SM: I created a wine brand with my friend and partner Ana Sofia, which is Defio, which means challenge in Esperanto and are two different canned wines.

These are premium wines, the first and only ones so far in Portugal. Premium wines, in still cans, which became beer are a mixture of our white wine with a Blond Ale base.

The Wine House also has also a cool project: maps [which demarcate Portugal's wine regions]. Now, we have maps of Portugal and the Bairrada and Douro wine regions and I hope to make maps of the remaining regions by the end of the year.

TPN: As a woman, have you ever felt hostility in your profession, which is mostly carried out by men?

SM: Not that there aren't many women, there are many women in this profession, but they are behind the scenes, they are in the cellars, they are in the offices. Usually, the men are the ones in charge. If we want to go deeper, I see this reflection in my classes in general, but women are not in the spotlight, therefore, they don't speak out, they don't expose themselves as much. And men sometimes overexpose themselves, they speak where they shouldn't speak as they think they have to say something.

In my opinion, it should not be a gender issue, because I'm a woman and I feel that things take longer because of that. But no, I don't think it's because I'm a woman, it's something that has more to do with my personality.

I consider myself an assertive person with self-esteem and, therefore, I try to pass this on to students, including.

More information about the courses may be found on The Wine House official website.

Deeply in love with music and with a guilty pleasure in criminal cases, Bruno G. Santos decided to study Journalism and Communication, hoping to combine both passions into writing. The journalist is also a passionate traveller who likes to write about other cultures and discover the various hidden gems from Portugal and the world. Press card: 8463.