From Vine to Table: An Immersive Wine Tasting Experience

On Friday,  26 February The American Club of Lisbon and Immersa Global hosted an interactive virtual wine tour and fully-commented tasting with three of Portugal’s award-winning winemakers. The event, produced in-kind by the upscale American-owned destination management company, Immersa Global, was designed to give ACL members the unique opportunity to learn about off-the-beaten path wineries and boutique wine production directly from the experts.

Before introducing each winemaker, the MC, Sheree M. Mitchell, provided a brief overview of Portugal’s national strategy to promote wine tourism in foreign markets as well as a contextualized explanation of the wine tourism ecosystem.

ACL members then sampled the wines as each winemaker explained behind-the-scenes details about how the wines were produced, including factors that influenced that year’s vintage such as abnormal weather patterns. The superstar lineup included Bernardo Cabral of Vicentino Wines (Vicentino Branco 2018), Carlos Campolargo of Adega Campolargo (Campolargo Rosé 2018), Márcio Lopes of Márcio Lopes Winemaker (Anel 2019), and Pedro Gallego of Outwine.

Immediately after the event, ACL’s President Patrick Siegler-Lathrop stated, “I thought the variety of wines selected was excellent, as was the choice of panelists, the mix in style and opinions was great.” ACL Board Member Nevin Weiner said: “We and our guests really enjoyed ourselves, found it informative and loved the wines and cheese selections. One couple is now going to join ACL based on the fun they had.” When asked about the specific format chosen for the event, Mitchell responded: “We wanted something unique, educational, and fun for all levels of wine lovers. It was also important to us that the virtual event represented the in-person travel programs that we design for our clients from back home.”
Based on the success of “From Vine to Table”, the American Club of Lisbon and Immersa Global are currently exploring ways to produce highly-curated cultural events such as this one on a regular basis.