Ana Reis: Passionately Portuguese (Part 1)

Wine Behind The Scenes

You are sure to have a great conversation when you feel the passion of the person in front of you. That's Ana Reis for you, sharing the fun, excitement, and enjoyment that wine has brought to her life and what comes with it and the people she encounters every day in the career she has chosen and loves dearly.

Listen in now as Ana shares fascinating facts about the beautiful city she lives in, the country she loves so much, and the wine industry she is so passionate about and finding so much fun in. And it's not complete without her sharing about Porto wines and their amazing history and what makes it, and all other Portuguese wines the best in the world.

What you'll learn from this episode:

• Find out what fire opening a bottle of port wine is and how it's done properly to preserve the wine's taste and have the best experience of the wine.
• Hear about the different kinds of Port wines and the best food pairings you can have.
• Understand the temperature at which Port wines are best served.

Ana Reis has been in the hospitality business practically all her life, worked only in Porto, Portugal - but in quite a few hotels. Portugal has an amazing wine culture and history and she’s trying to learn it… sip by sip. She’s looking forward to telling her story!

She was born and raised in Porto, Portugal. She’s 30 years old and has been in the hospitality business almost since birth, believe it not! Her mother had a small catering and events company and from a very young age she started helping her and developing her love for this difficult but rewarding career. She studied hospitality management and worked in a lot of well-known hotels in Porto like Sheraton, Intercontinental and Yeatman. Ana started by waiting tables, switched to bartending and after some years, discovered her love for wine and took the WSET level 2 and now she’s on her way to get the WSET level 3. Portugal has some of the oldest and most amazing wine regions in the world, so it's not hard not to be fascinated by this subject... just like Ana is.

Connect with Ana Reis:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ana-reis-59188312b/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anastreis/

Topics Covered:

03:28 - Sharing fascinating facts about herself, the city she lives in, and the country she loves dearly

06:57 - Ana's fun and enjoyable moment of meeting Laurel

07:44 - The story behind the fire opening a bottle of port wine and what makes it a fortified wine

13:23 - Different kinds of Port wines and the food pairings that best go with it [what it takes to declare it a vintage]

17:53 - Fascinating things to hear about vintage wines and how it's done -- fire opening a bottle of port wine [and why do it that way]

20:42 - The Physics behind fire opening a bottle of port wine

21:45 - How to best serve Port wine [ the best temperature that goes with it plus the food pairings you can have]

Quotes from Ana Reis:

“Portugal is almost 1,000 years old.”

“Porto is the best destination in the world for the 5th year in a row according to the NY Times.” “So I started going behind a bar which was super illegal at the time because I was serving alcohol when I was12 years old.”

“I started waiting tables then went on to bartending and then I got stung by the wine bug.”

“We were doing a memorable ritual, which consists of fire opening a bottle of wine and doing some chocolate truffles.”

“Port is basically a fortified wine.”

“People would used to think I was so funny because I already thought I was a grown woman.”

“I started waiting tables then went on to bartending and then I got stung by the wine bug.”

“The fire opening a bottle of wine is quite a show, of course, but it does serve a very important purpose.”

“Last year I think it was authorized for Tawny to be, uh, 50 years old.”

“If you have two farms next to each other, there is a possibility that one of the Rubys from that farm is the vintage and the other one is not.”

“You just put some extremely hot, like hell hot tongues around the neck of the bottle for like 30 seconds to a minute.”