Propelling Portugal: Embracing regional diversity

Portuguese wine is in a good place right now. Even a few years ago, we would have to patiently explain our varieties and regions, but now consumers – many familiar with the country through tourism – seem at ease with them,” says Anthony Symington, deputy head of sales at Symington Family Estates (SFE). The famous Anglo-Portuguese Port family made its debut into table wine around 1999, focusing on the Douro. Since then, however – in a pattern familiar among other Portuguese winemaking families and companies – SFE has spread away from its home base. The first ever winemaking venture outside the Douro took them in 2017 to Alentejo’s relatively cool-climate Portalegre, where they bought and modernised Quinta da Fonte Souto – where Symington says the Arinto- and Verdelho-based whites in particular have proved “a revelation”.