Portugal Markets Green Wine Abroad

Portugal Seeks Foreign Markets for its 'Green Wine'

Sun Oct 17, 6:37 PM ET
AFP - Worldwide News Agency

PONTE DE LIMA, Portugal (AFP) - Most people outside of Portugal have never heard of "Vinho Verde", or "Green Wine", a light sparkling wine with a slightly biting quality which is only produced in the country, but makers of the beverage hope to soon change that.

Each year the Minho province, a region of rich soil and plentiful rain in the northwest corner of Portugal, produces some 70 million litres (quarts) of the wine, which gets its slightly bubbly quality -- and its name -- because it is generally bottled right after fermentation.

But only eight million litres of "green wine", which come in red or white varieties, are exported each year, with Portuguese immigrant communities around the world accounting for roughly half of these sales.

To change this situation Portugal's association of green wine growers CVRVV plans to spend some 1.8 million euros (2.2 million dollars) between 2004 and 2006 to promote the wine abroad and help Portugal compete on the European market and earn a bigger share of global wine sales.

"Our 'green wine' is perfectly adaptable to 21st century lifestyles," the president of CVRVV, Manuel Pinheiro, told reporters during a tour of this wine-growing town some 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Lisbon.

The advertising campaign, partly financed with European Union funds, will focus on the British, French, German and Spanish markets within the EU, as well on Brazil, Canada, the United States and Switzerland.

It will involve, in part, the promotion of the drink at international fairs and high-profile wine tasting events, such as one held recently at veteran Hollywood actor Robert De Niro's restaurant in New York.

The producers however face stiff competition in those markets from larger wineries from other European nations as well as from Argentina, Chile and Australia and the US.

"It is very difficult to enter a new market. It will take a while," Paulo Amorim, the owner of Quinta d'Avaleda, one of Portugal's biggest "green-wine" producing wineries, told AFP.

To boost the marketability of the beverage both at home and abroad, producers of "green wine" are changing age-old production techniques in order to reduce the acidity of the drink and improve its overall quality.

Traditionally the vines which grow grapes for "green wine" are found in the river valley of the northern Douro river where they are draped on trees or specially constructed trellises.

Wine for Dummies

But growers are increasingly planting the vines on plots of land on hills higher up from the river, where they get more sun and less water, reducing their acidity.

"The quantity of wine produced is less but it is of greater maturity," said Pinheiro.

Of the roughly 35,000 hectares of land which dedicated to growing grapes in Minho to make "green wine", some 10,000 hectares now meet these conditions.

"People continue to drink mostly red wine. It is a fashion but I am convinced that this will change," said Amorim.