Portuguese wine producer Quinta da Aveleda has announced a £6 million investment in the Algarve, which is expected to primarily focus on the production of rosé wines.
In an exclusive interview, Martim Guedes, joint-CEO of Quinta da Aveleda, said the company had acquired the Quinta do Morgado da Torre vineyard in Alvor, with 15hc of vineyards and a further 65hc of land for planting new vines.
“We will be producing 300,000 bottles of wine in the Algarve next year. It’s a move which has already drawn interest from our distributors in the UK, Canada and Nordic countries,” Guedes told Harpers.
Quinta da Aveleda will produce red and white wines, but Guedes laid emphasis on the production of rosé wines.
“The Algarve is like a new Provence, with its terroir, soils and sunshine,” he said. “When I went to the Algarve about 18 months ago, I was very surprised by its potential.”
Guedes described the potential of the Algarve as a “two-way street” formed of the ideal combination of quality wine production and tourism.
“It’s milder than I thought and has good availability of water. It’s protected by the Monchique mountain range.”
Quinta da Aveleda’s investment sum includes the construction of a new winery and reception and tasting room facilities.
Ahead of launching Algarve wine exports, Guedes said Quinta da Aveleda would focus on regional sales.
“Only 3.5% of wine sold in the Algarve, is wine made in the Algarve, so there is an opportunity for us. Tourism in the Algarve is no longer seasonal, it is now all year round.”
Quinta da Aveleda is Portugal’s biggest producer in Vinho Verde. It also produces wine in the Douro and Bairrada regions, but it’s the company’s first investment in the Algarve.
The company’s acquisition highlights the growing wine investment appetite in the southern Portuguese region. Earlier this year, Antonio Vicente Marques, a lawyer and wine producer of ‘Dom Vicente’ premium wines in the Dão region, announced plantings of 12 ha of vineyards in Luz de Tavira, in the Eastern Algarve.
“I am mitigating risk.Whilst production in some parts of Portugal has fallen between 40 and 50%, volumes in the Algarve in 2018, were overall unaffected by the weather,” Marques told Harpers.
“In the Algarve, I can use less than a third of the amount of pesticides that are used in vineyards in in the Douro, Dão and in Alentejo,” he said.
Over the past decade, the number of wine producers in the Algarve has more than doubled, making it Portugal’s fastest growing wine region, according to the Algarve Viticulture Commission (CVA). (See Harpers https://harpers.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/22011/The_Rise_of_The_Algarve.html)