The Yeatman

From the terraces of The Yeatman the whole of Porto is spread across the river: the Ribeira, the cathedral, the Clérigos tower and the iron arch of the Dom Luís I bridge. The hotel stands on the hillside of Vila Nova de Gaia among the port wine lodges, built by a port family on land beside their own cellars, and opened in August 2010 as the first luxury hotel on the Gaia bank.

History

The Fladgate Partnership, the group that owns Taylor's, Fonseca and Croft, had been in the port trade since 1692 and decided in the 2000s to build a hotel that would present Portuguese wine the way its lodges presented port. The name comes from the Yeatman family, partners in Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman since the nineteenth century. Adrian Bridge, the group's managing director, led the project, and the hotel opened in 2010 with the stated aim of becoming a wine hotel for the whole country, each room sponsored by a Portuguese producer. The Fladgate group has since added the Vinum restaurant at Graham's, the WOW cultural quarter below the hotel in 2020 and the Vintage House in the Douro valley to its hospitality side.

Architecture and design

The building steps down the slope in terraces so that every room, the restaurant, the bar and the pools look north across the river to the city. Its style is a modern version of the Gaia lodges, with white walls, stone and tiled roofs, and gardens of vines and olives between the terraces. Inside, the decoration follows the wine theme: each room is named for and furnished by a partner winery, and the corridors carry wine art and barrel staves. The public rooms include a library and the Dick's Bar, named for Dick Yeatman.

Rooms and suites

There are 109 rooms and suites, all with a balcony or terrace facing Porto. The suites run from Master Suites with large terraces to the Bacchus Suite, with a bed set in a giant barrel, and the Taylor's Suite at the top of the building. Bathrooms are in marble with separate showers, and the bedding and furniture are in a classic Portuguese manner rather than a contemporary one.

Dining

The Gastronomic Restaurant, under the chef Ricardo Costa since the opening, holds two Michelin stars, the first restaurant in Porto to reach that level, for a tasting menu built on Portuguese produce and the Atlantic. The wine list runs to more than a thousand references, mostly Portuguese, and the cellar is the largest collection of Portuguese wine in any hotel. The Orangerie serves breakfast and lunch on the terrace, and Dick's Bar does cocktails and a lighter menu with the city view. Wine dinners with producers are held through the year.

Wellness

The Caudalie Vinothérapie Spa, the French brand's first in Portugal, occupies the lower terraces with an indoor pool, saunas, a hammam and treatment rooms using grape-based products. The outdoor infinity pool, shaped like a decanter and lit at night, is the hotel's most photographed feature; it looks straight across the river to the Ribeira.

Weddings and events

The Yeatman is one of Porto's main wedding and conference addresses. Its ballroom takes several hundred for a dinner, with a terrace for ceremonies and receptions facing the city, and a series of meeting rooms serves the wine trade, corporate groups and the annual events of the port houses. Private dinners are held in the wine cellar or in the Gastronomic Restaurant's private rooms.

Location

The hotel is on Rua do Choupelo in the lodge quarter of Gaia, five minutes on foot from the Taylor's lodge and the WOW quarter, and ten minutes from the riverside and the lower deck of the Dom Luís I bridge into Porto. Porto Campanhã station is fifteen minutes by taxi, São Bento station a little less, and Porto airport about thirty minutes. As a luxury hotel in Porto, on the Gaia side, it has the view the city hotels can only look at from the wrong direction.