WineXP, “a kind of wine tourism Booking” for Portugal | People

“A kind of wine tourism Booking.” The comparison comes from the creator of WineXP herself, Stephanie Seldon-Brown, a 48-year-old Anglo-Belgian, living in Portugal for 18 years. Businesswoman and triathlete, she competed for Sporting and represented Portugal in international championships. Now, wine is one of her passions.

In such a way that last year, with his brother, James, decided to create a platform online that gathered information about several Portuguese farms with wine tourism activities and that allowed appointments for visits and tests. “I started to have many Portuguese friends contacting me to find out where to visit producers in areas of the country, for example in Braga or the Algarve”, he says. “I realized that it was not easy to find things online. And even when I gave some tips about farms, it wasn’t easy to book afterwards, no one answered or responded to requests. emails.”

WineXP, which in addition to Web site is also available as app, wants to make this task easier. “Like Booking with hotels”, continues Stephanie. “It’s a tool for customers and producers. The customer pays online and then the farm always has to confirm the reservation.”

The platform earns a small commission from the sale (Stephanie prefers not to reveal how much), but the price for the customer is not higher for booking through the app. “If on the farm they charge 30 euros for a tasting and visit, here the customer will not receive an added value”, he guarantees.

At the site (winexp.pt) it is possible to search by region of the country, by type of winery (cooperative, historical, architecture and design or family business) or by experience (with several options, from wine tasting to harvesting/pruning experience, walks around the estate, cooking classes, horseback riding, bird watching and even cork extraction). Depending on your choices, the platform filters the available activity options and allows you to book and pay directly in a few minutes.

For now, WineXP has a Portuguese and English version and will soon be available in French and Spanish. “For farms there are no costs for being in the site,” says Stephanie.

The platform has 40 registered farms, but the number promises to increase in the near future. “There are two or three websites international with farms from all over the world, but our focus is on farms in Portugal. Furthermore, We visit them all, we curate them.”

Despite this concern, they are only “intermediaries” and are not present during visits or even provide transport to the farms. “Customers go alone. We are not a travel agency”, emphasizes Stephanie.

In addition to promoting national wines, the objective of app It is also about raising awareness of small producers, who would normally go unnoticed alongside larger farms, “like Bacalhôa or João Portugal Ramos”, says Stephanie – the latter is also part of WineXP –, “who have 15 tourist guides and not just a winemaker to visit”.

Malvarinto, a debut wine

Among the smaller businesses is, for example, Quinta San Michel, in Janas, Sintra, which we discovered through the platform, registered in the “family business” category, and with a visit to the cellar with two wine tastings costing 25 euros per person. On the farm in the Colares region, the two winemakers, Alexandre Guedes and Marta Esteves, are responsible for the visits.

The business of Alexandre’s father-in-law, Joaquim Camilo, started 10 years ago, with vineyards planted “from scratch” on land that only had a ruin. Today, in addition to the 2.2 hectares of vineyard, a family house with a swimming pool was built and the wine cellar was improvised in an old garage that is already too small for production, which last year reached 15 thousand bottles.

In 2017, the farm launched its first wine, the Malvarinto, a blend of Alvarinho and Malvasia de ColaresThe caste indigenous to the region. “It’s our reference wine, a very unique wine”, explains Alexandre, after showing us around the small property. “We are the only producer in Portugal to combine the two varieties and this also ended up gaining some prominence and becoming the brand image of the farm.”

Stephanie is a fan of Malvarinto and is also part of the Quinta San Michel wine club. For the businesswoman who has already taken some wine courses, it makes perfect sense for businesses like Quinta San Michel to be on the platform. “Little by little, farms are contacting us, especially the smaller farms, which need publicity”, account. “It’s one of the things we love most and want to promote. It’s not that the others have no value, but the smaller farms have a storytelling very beautiful.”