The Daily Wine Paris - Vinexpo Paris - Day 1

I EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW I
How Portuguese wine
has changed and why it is more
popular than ever
Exclusive interview with Frederico Falcão,
President of Wines of Portugal.
Portugal has long been revered for exporting quality
wine domestically and around the world. However,
the country’s wine sector has recently seen success
and investment unlike ever before. Frederico Falcão,
President of ViniPortugal, discusses how the Portuguese
wine market has changed and how it is becoming more
and more lucrative.
You have been promoting
Portuguese wines for the past 25
years. Broadly speaking, what has
changed in this time?
In the nineties, if we think about what
Portuguese wines were in terms of
quality or image recognition, and if
we compare it to today, it’s radically
different. At the time, the world was
unaware of the quality of our wines
and many markets didn’t even
know where Portugal was on the
map or that Portugal was a quality
wine producer. However, there
was a generation of Portuguese
winemakers who travelled, who
changed the wines to a more
commercial style and that helped
to change a certain mentality. We
spent many years producing inhouse,
improving ourselves, but
this in-house strategy delayed
our internationalisation as a wine
producing country for a long time.
It's a delight to see that, in the last
10 to 15 years, Portugal has been
doing an excellent job in terms of
world wine promotion and that, in
a few years, we've conquered the
world. It’s not in vain that we’re the
ninth country on the international
wine trade list.
Today the reality is thus very
different from what it was 25 years
ago. Foreigners enter our country
daily with the goal of tasting
our wines. We have tourists in
experiencing the harvests and
falling in love with our wines. Some
of them end up settling in Portugal
and investing in the Portuguese
wine sector.
The fact that the Portuguese
wine sector is very well organised,
having created its own association
ViniPortugal to represent and
promote the sector, speaking with
a single voice, has helped Portugal
to grow so fast in international
markets. In 2010 all this was
reinforced with the creation of the
brand ‘Wines of Portugal’.
The popularity of Portuguese wines
is growing, what differentiates
them from other countries?
Portugal has more than 250
identified native/autochthonous
varieties, and our terroirs are
completely different from anywhere
else. Even though it is a very small
country, the diversity of internal
terroirs is huge, making Portugal
a truly different world. Our wines
have an excellent value for
money ratio, we’ve been running
a good marketing campaign in
international markets. All of these
factors have helped us obtain many
achievements across borders.
What are the best performing
Portuguese wines and why?
Portuguese wines have shown
remarkable evolution, especially in
these last two difficult years. The
wine sector has managed to make
the best use of these constraints
and we manage to achieve more
international share every year. It's
not easy to highlight any region,
since most of them are recording
a great increase in sales, but
Douro and Port, Vinho Verde,
Alentejo, Lisboa, Península de
Setúbal, Bairrada and Tejo wines
have recorded the best results
since the beginning of 2019 in
terms of business value, according
November 2021 data.
What are the target markets for
Portuguese wines and why?
In addition to France, the US
and the UK, we also count Brazil,
Germany and Canada among our
top export markets. Our strategy
includes being on four continents,
where we are also present in:
Angola, China, Japan, Norway,
South Korea, Switzerland, Russia,
Sweden, Poland, Mexico, Ukraine,
Spain, Belgium and Denmark.
In these markets, the Wines
of Portugal brand focuses its
communication on 10 varieties – reds:
Touriga Nacional, Aragonez / Tinta
Roriz, Touriga Franca, Trincadeira
/ Tinta Amarela, Castelão, Baga
and whites: Alvarinho, Arinto,
Fernão Pires/Maria Gomes and
Encruzado – which are a flagship
in the promotion of Portuguese
wines. This communication has
been a success attracting many
buyers from these countries, so
we will increase and reinforce our
presence there and continue to add
new achievements.
You are one of the biggest
exhibitors at Wine Paris & Vinexpo
Paris this year. Why is this such an
important event for you?
Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris is one
of the most important and most
impactful wine fairs in the sector.
The event is a meeting between
the most famous wine regions in
the world and professional buyers
from the five continents. We
couldn’t miss this presence and
being here in a prominent way.
The Wines of Portugal stand has
55 exhibitors, representing the main
wine regions – Vinho Verde, Porto
and Douro, Dão, Lafões, Bairrada,
Beira Interior, Alentejo, Lisboa, Tejo,
Península de Setúbal, Algarve and
Madeira – with several news over
the three days and a tailor-made
tastings area
THE DAILY • MONDAY 14 TH FEBRUARY 2022 • 13