The Cascais Wine Club is a project that is run by me, Petra Bakker. I am a wine expert with 15 years of experience in teaching wine courses and giving wine tastings in the Netherlands. I followed my passion and relocated to Portugal some  years ago. Now I share my love for Portuguese wines with locals,  expats and other internationals in Cascais.

The diversity of Portuguese wines keeps blowing me away. Each region has so much authenticity to offer. And the quality of the wines is one of the wine worlds best kept secrets. My aim is to help others to enjoy the Portuguese wines as much as I do. The Cascais Wine Club aims to give acces to the best Portuguese wines at a friendly price. With a selection that is curated from an international wine drinkers perspective. 

My path to become a wine educator began in Amsterdam, where my side job in restaurants grew into a role managing a Michelin-recognized restaurant’s 300+ wine list. Here I made wine and food pairings and managed the wine list. Though my career later took me into marketing and technology, wine remained a calling. By 2011, I became a certified Vinologist and have been teaching and organizing tastings ever since.

In Portugal I have turned that expertise into a full-time business. Through Vidavinho, I run wine tastings and workshops in Cascais and Lisbon, often tailoring sessions for international groups. Including visits to wineries from my network. With the Cascais Wine Club I want to make good quality wines accessible for everyone who likes to enjoy a good glass of wine at home.

The goal is always to give the wine loving audience exclusive acces to a selection of high quality Portuguese wines. The selection focusses on authenticity, highlighting regions and grape varieties that go far beyond the familiar names of Douro and Vinho Verde.