Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

Minister for Agriculture,
Young Oenologists,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

My first words are to greet you all and to thank you for being present in this Encounter.

I know many of you have travelled long distances and that some of you have given up a public holiday, or forsaken your families, to attend this gathering today.

I equally want to express my sincere thanks to the Soares family for their warm welcome in this magnificent facility of the Malhadinha Nova Estate.

Fine wines are grown here, associated to a high quality rural tourism unit, with an innovatory concept that has earned unanimous recognition.

We are all aware that wine is the most important product of our primary sector.

It annually generates a value of 900 million euros, approximately 17 percent of the total value of our agricultural production.

Vineyards occupy 240 thousand hectares of cultivated area, and 30 thousand producers spread over the whole of the country.

Furthermore, it is perfectly understandable to all Portuguese that this is a sector which, in the last two decades, has generated a very positive dynamism and an enormous qualitative advance.

We do not produce more wine now than we did in the old days.

What we do produce is a much better wine. And this is excellent. It is good for our economy; it is good for our rural areas; and it is good for Portuguese consumers who do not substitute our wines for any others.

But it is also good for tourism and, above all, for our exports and for Portugal’s prestige.

I wish to emphasize that we export, annually, approximately 600 million euros of wine.

In effect, in the last two decades:

          • Thousands of hectares of vineyards were reconverted;
          • Hundreds of wineries were built or modernized;
          • Specific courses were set up in several Universities and Polytechnic Institutes;
          • The number of exhibitions, competitions, fairs and wine tasting events were vastly
              increased, mustering not just economic agents but also an important part of the
              people of Portugal.

Viticulture became, in effect, one of the most dynamic sectors of our economy.

This very positive development did not happen by chance.

It is the result of a combined and prolonged effort.

A knowledgeable effort, involving wine growers, producers, traders, technicians and oenologists, in addition to institutions of a very diversified nature.

Institutions where teaching and research are being carried out, or where quality is controlled or production is organized. Institutions which promote exports and demand, or that congregate and associate the different agents of this particular production chain.

The success of the sector has also benefited from an increased and knowledgeable attention of the specialized media, which disseminates and promotes the quality and demand for our wines.

We have not only been able to ensure the supply of our domestic market and sustain the pressure of imports – that on its own would already be relevant – but we have also been able to maintain and develop our exports to demanding markets in a highly competitive context.

The idea to meet with you arose in the framework of a Route to Youth which I had the opportunity to recently carry out in Lower Alentejo.

I was unable to do so at the time, due to concerns over the health of one of the officers of the Malhadinha Nova Estate, which have fortunately been completely overcome. After this we could not have chosen another location to hold this event.

My intention was, and is, to publicly witness the Country’s recognition and appreciation for the excellent work that has been carried out by the companies, technicians and institutions on behalf of viticulture and the national economy.

I am now publicly recognizing it through this gathering with the young and brilliant generation of Portuguese oenologists.

They are excellent and highly trained professionals, who exercise their activity with great enthusiasm and dedication.

They are young professionals responsible for a healthy competitive environment, who are ready to work in any place in Portugal, whether North or South, in coastal regions or in the interior, where they produce, or help to produce, fine wines. Some of the best wines in the world.

The international recognition of our wines keeps growing.

The hundreds of medals attributed in the more important international wine competitions and the high qualifications – which at times reach excellence – obtained by Portuguese wines, in contests organized by prestigious organizations and speciality magazines, are undeniable proof of this circumstance.

I believe, moreover, that the recent project of the “Vinhos de Portugal” trade mark will become another positive contribution towards the strengthening of the Portuguese image as a producing country.

In this increasingly uniform world of viticulture, one of our challenges is also to produce different wines and to make them known to the consumers. I understand that we are investing in this feature, valuing some of our excellent and greatly appreciated national grape varieties.

Much of this work and of this dynamism would not have come about without the support of the Regional Viticulture Commissions, of the Douro and Port Wine Institute and of the Institute of the Vineyard and Wine, as well as that of VINIPORTUGAL, whose officers are present here today and whom I am very pleased to greet.

However, none of this could have been achieved without the contribution of knowledge and science, which accompanied, or I even dare say, preceded the notable evolution of national viticulture.

The presence here of professors from the Higher Institute of Agronomy and from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, recognized as having been of great relevance in the training of hundreds of young people, many of them present here, and who are nowadays oenologists or viticulture technicians, has a very particular significance.

Professors Nuno Magalhães and Olga Laureano are unanimously recognized as two important and distinguished individuals in national viticulture.

Both contributed, and still do so, with their work in the training and teaching areas and in that of research, towards the modernization and the improvement of the quality of Portuguese vineyards and wine.

Moreover, they have not become isolated, but have helped their students, collaborated and still collaborate in numerous innovatory investment and research projects, collaborated with other universities and with other countries, and were able to establish very important links with numerous viticulture enterprises, always demonstrating highly specific knowledge, sense of professionalism and dedication to this sector of activity.

For these reasons it is with particular pleasure that I, whilst President of the Republic, and wishing to distinguish the sector of viticulture, decided to award to Professors Nuno Magalhães and Olga Laureano the Degree of Commander of the Order of Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Merit, Class of Agriculture.