School of Port, the educational platform from historic Port producer, Symington Family Estates, is launching a new video course: The Masters.
October 5th – The Masters is School of Port’s most advanced and comprehensive online video course to date. After the success of The Essentials, a 16-episode course that covers the various stages of Port production, The Masters takes the viewer to the next level, tackling the subject with more vigour and technical detail.
Consisting of five in-depth episodes, The Masters explores the production, ageing, and bottling of the different styles of Port, with guest speakers providing first-hand experience and unique insights into their craft. Students will learn about the processes at the heart of Port winemaking, hear from those directly involved in producing and ageing all styles of Port, and learn in detail about how different Port styles are blended and bottled.
In addition to Isabel Monteiro – affectionately known as School of Port’s resident #portgeek, – The Masters features a host of important figures from across the trade, including several members of the Symington family’s fourth
generation.
The Masters is now available free from schoolofport.com, requiring only that students register before starting.
English and Portuguese subtitles are available, and students can choose whether to take an exam at the end of the course to receive a digital School of Port certificate.
We recommend watching the episodes sequentially:
- Episode 1: Fermentation, fortification, and ageing
- Episode 2: Wood-matured port I – Ruby, Reserve Ruby, LBV
- Episode 3: Wood-matured port II – Tawny, Reserve Tawny, Aged Tawnies
- Episode 4: Bottle-matured port – LBV, Crusted, Vintage Port
- Episode 5: Into the Bottle – Blending and bottling
School of Port will continue to share educational content on Instagram @SchoolOfPort, as well as conducting online and in-person training sessions for professionals.
ABOUT SYMINGTON FAMILY ESTATES
The Symingtons of Scottish, English, and Portuguese descent have been port producers in northern Portugal since 1882.
For 5 generations they have combined their passion for producing fine wines and Ports with a deep commitment to the region’s land and people. Today, ten Symingtons work across their four Port houses: Graham’s, Cockburn’s, Dow’s and Warre’s, as well as their Douro wine brands – Quinta do Vesúvio, Quinta do Ataíde, Altano and Prats & Symington (of Chryseia fame). In 2017 they launched a new venture, Quinta da Fonte Souto, in the Alto Alentejo.
Symington Family Estates is a leading premium Port producer and the leading owner of prime vineyard in the Douro Valley, with 26 Quintas covering 2,233 hectares, with 1,076 hectares of vineyard. The family business is a founding member of Primum Familiae Vini – an association of 12 European wine families – and in 2020 was voted in 7th place in The World’s Most Admired Wine Brands list by a panel of over 200 international wine experts organised by Drinks International.
All Symington vineyards are sustainably managed under a minimum intervention certification and 130 ha are organically farmed – the largest area of organic vineyard in northern Portugal. The family have invested significantly in viticulture R&D to adapt to climate change and have an ambitious sustainability plan, with a series of public goals under the banner of Mission 2025. In 2019 the company became a certified B Corporation – the first wine company in Portugal to take this step – joining a global community of businesses audited for the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility. Symington was named Ethical Company of the Year in The Drinks Business 2019 Green Awards.
For more information:
