Page 28 - Code de Vino, #17/23, a/w 2018

26 Personalia Code de Vino #17 Code de Vino #17 Jorge Monteiro, Head of the ViniPortugal association 27

ViniPortugal is a Portuguese wine industry interprofessional — Mr. Monteiro, tell us a little about your
Association. What does it do, what are its goals
association founded in 1997 as a private non-profit
in Portugal? Is it state run
organization. ViniPortugal unites leading domestic trade or an NGO?
and production associations and professional organizations,
cooperative wineries, distillers, farmers, and Portuguese — We are a private company founded in 1996.
We prefer the term "interprofessional." We unite
wine region councils with an aim to promote the image
producers, farmers, cooperatives, regional councils
of Portugal as the wine producing par excellence and distributors, and act as mediators among them
by endorsing the Wines of Portugal brand. all; we are very well-known and acknowledged
in this area.
Jorge Monteiro Wines of Portugal are currently available in 4 continents We are a private company that serves public
and 11 strategic markets thanks to ViniPortugal.
interests. Accordingly, our main goal is to distribute
and support Portuguese wines, and present Portugal
With annual investments of around EUR 7 million,
ViniPortugal carries out over 100 annual Portuguese wine globally as an excellent producer of good, truly
interesting wines.
promotional actions involving around 350 national wine
Head of the ViniPortugal association: producers. The strategic aim of the organization
is to present Wines of Portugal as a first-rate collective — Are you mostly involved in marketing, or are
you also engaged in scientific research and
"We, the Portuguese, national brand and become a top-ten global wine exporter lobbying regarding wine regulations and laws?
are major traditionalists" in the next decade. — We promote the product on the global market,
which is the most important thing we can do. But one
In April 2018, during the Portuguese Wine Salon in way or another, we are also certainly involved in wine
Moscow, we sat down with Association President Mr. Jorge tourism because we interact with these people and
Interview by Vasily Prytkov Monteiro to discuss Portuguese winemaking development give recommendations on how the market should
be promoted and developed. Of course, we also give
trends, the character of Portuguese winemaking in general,
recommendations to manufacturers on the choice
and the Portuguese view on the Russian market. of certain autochthonous varieties.