Science & Wine is a science communication project that begun in 22 of January of 2018 with the aim of making wine scientific data more accessible. This project includes a blog page that is open to anyone interested in the various aspects of wine science. With a weekly periodicity (Sundays), scientific articles about any issue related with wine are published (http://science-and-wine.com/) . Until now, almost 100 posts were published with the contribution of several generous researchers with high scientific curriculums. Several topics were already approached including: the impact of climate warming in viticulture, wine and human health, precision viticulture, wine metabolome, wine microbiology, wine tasting, terroir, and wine technology.
As a communication project, Science & Wine organized the 1st Science & Wine World Congress, which took place at 8-10 May 2019 in Alfândega Congress Centre in Porto (https://www.ciencia-e-vinho.com/wine-future/). This event brought together the experience of experts from industry, academia, research institutions, service providers, regulatory agencies and policy makers and design the wine that will be consumed in the future.
With the goal of engage publics in dialogue about wine, in January of 2019 started Wine Science Cafés (https://www.ciencia-e-vinho.com/wine-science-cafes/). These are events where, for the price of a glass of wine, anyone can meet to discuss the latest ideas of science that are impacting wine sector. They were planned to be an opportunity for both scientists and the community to understand each other’s perspective in a nonformal setting and provides an opportunity to increase science literacy. Wine Science Cafés generally occur in the last Thursday of each month and take place in casual settings such as wine houses, restaurants, wine cellars and coffeehouses in Portugal (every two-months in Porto). A typical Wine Science Café format is approximately 90 minutes in duration and involves both expert speakers and a moderator. Speakers include both scientists and people of wine sector. The moderator introduces the Café concept, the topic and the speaker(s). Each speaker presents for 5–10 minutes without any visual aids. A 15-minute break is given to allow participants to eat something and drink a glass of wine and generate questions. The moderator then opens the discussion, mainly in a question-and-answer format.
Science & Wine will continue to promote more initiatives aimed to increase scientific knowledge regarding wine, to encourage researchers to communicate their science effectively and inspire people to collaborate with others to develop interdisciplinary partnerships that address both scientific and societal requests effectively.