How do Portuguese wineries work during quarantine?

The pandemic has also hit the wine sector sensitively, around the world. So do also in Portugal.

The country’s leadership reacted quickly enough to the outbreak and asked the population to stay home almost after the first illnesses.
Thus, overnight, festivals were banned, wineries, restaurants and also bars were closed. And the wine shops only accept home delivery.
However, in order for wineries to continue to operate during and after the pandemic, they need to maintain contact with their consumers. The only refuge home in the wine sector is the Internet.

Voucher

First, they offered vouchers, with which we can actually buy or book wine tours at the winery, what we can redeem after the pandemic.

Smart Tasting

This is actually a kind of virtual wine tour. The producer delivers 2-3 of his own wines to your home and then talks about the operation, history and also products of the cellar virtually via the Internet while we can taste the wines of the given winery at home. It is a very interesting, innovative solution to communicate with consumers.

Wine tasting at home

Home wine tasting, however, is a better known and more common way to keep in touch all over the world. Various forms of this have already been developed in many countries, which, incidentally, were launched by the Italians. And it is no longer used only by wineries, but by wine experts, wine shops, and even many sommeliers to keep in touch with their followers. We can mainly find and take part in such wine tastings on Instagram. Sitting in front of the camera, the professionals open a wine they intend to show and talk about it in a 30-60 minutes virtual wine tasting while they also taste that wine. Usually, a few days before the tasting, they already indicate on their pages which wine and when it will be presented, so in the meantime, we can also get it from an online shop so we can taste it with them. Moreover, during the tasting, many professionals are also talking to their “viewers” ​​about what they think of that particular wine.

Wine Club

In exchange for a monthly subscription fee, wine clubs deliver 2 or 3 wines selected by a professional (or sometimes based on the individual taste of the subscriber) on a given day of each month, accompanied by a magazine containing information about those wines. This solution offers a very good opportunity, for example, for a family or group of friends to meet at least once a month for a home wine tasting, where they can open and taste the wines they receive together.

Online shop

Since the wine shops also had to close, they offer wines of their stock with home delivery so we couldn’t be left without wine even during the quarantine.

So, the Portuguese wineries ensure their survival and operation during the quarantine these ways.