Port Personalities In Focus is proud to introduce you to Marta Lourenço. This FTLOP Series has become vital in our mission to introduce readers to members of the Port, and Portuguese wine trade. In Focus brings you candid comments, personal perspectives, and a better understanding of the people inside the Portuguese wine trade: from sales and marketing professionals, master blenders, winemakers vineyard managers, distributors and importers, owners, and managing directors. We hope you’ll benefit from meeting the people on these pages.

 

1. Please share some information about your life and how you wound up working in the Port and Douro wine trade and at what age?

My passion for wine, according to my grandmother, dates to when I was the age of two. According to her, she spent her days asking for wine. Since I was a little girl, I helped with the harvest at home, cutting the grapes, treading in the lagares, and washing out the tanks. As a teenager, due to European projects, I had contact with children with disabilities, and it was an experience that captivated me a lot. At that time, I decided that I wanted to work with those children in my future and be an Occupational Therapist, but destiny was set and I never managed to get into the program, missing only by a minor decimal point. After trying for 3 years, I gave up and applied to several courses in the sciences and studied Agro-Food Engineering, and always specialized in the area of wine.

In 2004, I did an internship with Engineer Bernardo Cabral in Santa Vitória, who at the end of the internship encouraged me to pursue the area as he had, with "all the talent in the world!” It was my earliest and most professional contact with wine, and I loved it, because it was a lot of hard work and long strenuous hours, and I had received that education, which is why it moved me so much!

2. What is your favorite style of Port to drink at home, and can you name two or three of the greatest Ports you have ever tried?

At home, generally, we only drink Colheitas and preferably, with a considerable amount of age.

As a rule, we consume our own productions or those of friends. The best Ports I have ever tasted are a 1964 Quinta do Noval Nacional Vintage Port and I love one from our own family’s production, Quinta de Baúves Colheita from 1978.

3. Besides Espumante from your own company, what other producers do you most enjoy drinking?

In addition to our sparkling wines, I typically consume red and white wines. As for red wines, my favorite producer is Quinta do Vale Meão, and for white wines I love Abel Codesso, especially from the PROVAM project. As for fortified wines, I undoubtedly love the Ports from Quinta do Noval.

4. What brings you the most joy in what you do within the Portuguese wine trade?

In the entire world of wine, what excites me the most, is the annual harvest time. It's wonderful to walk through the vineyards and follow the maturation of the grapes, and
ultimately, making the decision as to the optimal moment to begin picking. And then in the cellar on the day after the grapes are picked, orchestrating the transformation of the
crushed grapes into wine!

5. Would you please share one piece of unique trivia or historical information about your current company that would be new to FTLOP readers?

A curiosity and at the same time a bit of history, is that the first sparkling wines to be produced at Caves da Murganheira were made by one of Moët & Chandon's enologists, as the founder of the cellars was a supplier to the group in the area of textiles. One day in a wine fair, when tasting our white wines he loved them and encouraged us to produce “Champagne” here, (at the time there was still no restriction on the name which we now call, Espumante. The winemaker argued that our wines had as much or even better quality to produce sparkling wines of excellence. The founder (Mr. Acácio Laranjo) as he did not know about the methodology of sparkling wine production, asked for help, and he came to teach and produce the first sparkling wines by Murganheira!

So even today, we have excellent relationships with the wine industry professionals in Champagne, and it is from them that we continue to learn and improve even further!

6. Which individual has been your greatest mentor and how have they inspired you?

If I was only able to refer to one mentor, it would be unfair, as I actually consider that I have 3 individual mentors, and each has their own unique point of view. The first was Engineer Bernardo Cabral, because if it weren't for him, I would never have become a winemaker. The second was Professor Jaume Gramona, who helped guide me to be the best technician possible and, lastly and most importantly, Professor Orlando da Costa Lourenço, insofar as being a professional of excellence … he demanded the same from me and provided all the freedom and strength to be
the best me possible!

 

 

7. What is the greatest challenge facing the Port trade today? What about Douro wine Trade?

Honestly, I don't know anymore because I think the challenges are many! A few years ago, I could have said, show the world the exceptional quality of Portuguese wines, but I think that nowadays that barrier has started to be overcome. Not necessarily in sparkling wines, as the name Champagne remains very powerful, regardless of the exceptional quality of many Portuguese
Espumantes! But I'm getting more and more confused because what motivates me the most is respect for nature and that's what we convey in our products, given that with great hygiene and
quality grapes it is possible to make natural wines without defects. But for the market, if the wine has no blemishes, it can’t be natural! I don't know what to say, because I refuse to intentionally put wines in the marketplace with known defects, as I am very aware that it’s possible to make fantastic, chemical-free, natural wines.

8. Can you share one new project or improvement that your company is currently involved with?

At the moment, our main focus is to produce the best natural sparkling wines possible, taking into account the greatest respect for nature and sustainability. We have been involved with organic production since 2015, and we bottled our first organice sparkling wines in 2018 and we are going to launch our first certified natural still wine later this year, with sparkling wines also coming soon!

9. What can the industry do to improve the promotion and education of Portuguese wine and grow market share in the ever-evolving global beverage marketplace?

There is double work to be done, in regard to the consumer, special tastings with the producers to present their products and preferably to open the doors even wider, because when people see
and taste where (and how) the product is actually made, it delivers greater confidence. And then Roy is to be congratulated, because he has played an exceptional role in this field, bringing many tourists to discover Portugal, but essentially, they then become ambassadors for our products. And this country can never have too many of these well-educated promoters! But we as producers, also must play a greater role and get out of our comfort zones more and discover other worlds, other ways of being in the world of wine and promoting the wines of Portugal as well as our own brands, because Portuguese wine as well as the marketplace … is always evolving!

10. What non-wine activities do you enjoy?

I usually say that after making wine, what I like to do most is to ski. I love exercising and during the pandemic I really fell in love with mountain biking. As I usually say, ‘I was born in a tiny village where about 30 people live, and nature and everything connected to it, continues to amaze me.’