Italians look to conquer Portuguese wine market

Italian wine distributors La Fattoria have launched a selection of Italy’s finest regional wines onto the Portuguese market, the official presentation taking place at the exclusive Vilamoura Hilton Hotel.

La Fattoria’s project was introduced at the same time as the winner of Best Sommelier 2008, Manuel Moreira, elected by the Association Internacional de Sommeliers.

It is hoped that La Fattoria will become a point of reference for quality Italian wine in Portugal.

“We are ready to take on the great opportunities presented by the Portuguese market, which has a long, mature tradition of wine making, and is ready to expand its knowledge beyond the national frontier”, said Roberto Del Gizzo, country manager of La Fattoria Portugal, which is based in Cascais.

At the official launch, which took place at the Hilton Vilamoura, Algarve, around 150 regional professionals were invited to a sampling event, which featured universally awarded Italian wines such as Berlucchi, Beni di Batasiolo, Vietti, St. Michael Eppan, Marzadro, Tedeschi, Fantinel, Biondi Santi, Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi, Rocca delle Macìe, Macchialupa, Donnafugata and Argiolas.

More events to promote La Fattoria’s project are planned, the next of which will take place at the Italian Embassy in Lisbon and at the FIL wine exhibition also in Lisbon.

Before attempting to ‘conquer’ Portugal, La Fattoria launched sister-companies in a number of other central European countries, where they have been very successful.