There are 3 problems in the wine sector and Portugal has another one…

Problem #1: Changes in consumption patterns

Increasingly, current and new generations of wine consumers prefer wines with less body, more fruitiness, freshness, less oak, less alcohol, and less corpulence. This brings to the market wines that are increasingly less complex, more homogeneous, and less distinctive. With these changes, wines are becoming more and more similar, and the terroir factor is becoming less and less important. In this context, white, rosé, and sparkling wines are beginning to gain ground in consumer preferences, and in the case of red wines, new categories such as Palhetes are emerging to respond to these changes. Red wines, in the Beaujolais style, are gaining prominence in the market.

New trends in wine consumption:

Type of wine	Tendencies
Whites	fresh + fruity - alcohol floral + acidity No wood
Red wines	+ fruity - alcohol - wood - astringency - body With some residual sugar
Pink	+ fruity + acid With some residual sugar
Sparkling wines	fresh + fruity - alcohol
Fortified	- alcohol - sugar

Second problem: Climate change.

This second problem identified by the wine consultancy has a direct influence on changes in consumption patterns, since it goes against what consumers are looking for.

Climate change has a direct impact on viticulture production, as it increases production costs and requires constant adaptations by winegrowers in terms of vine cultivation and implementation. This requires planning to determine the most suitable grape variety for climate change, considering vineyard location, balancing altitude, soil structure, sun exposure, and the biological characteristics of the variety to produce a specific wine profile and, in some cases, ensure its survival. Therefore, regions like Bordeaux are currently evaluating/testing grape varieties from other countries, including our Touriga Nacional and Alvarinho, to adapt to climate change and guarantee wine quality. Other French regions are also testing genetically modified hybrid varieties.

Today's winegrower needs more scientific knowledge and the use of technology to predict these changes and act accordingly. Similarly, climate change isn't just about increased heat and lower rainfall each year, but also about the rise in extreme weather events that require winegrowers to take immediate action. Examples include hail (increasingly common) and frost, very frequent in Burgundy and Champagne. In the latter case, bonfires are lit in the middle of the vines to melt the ice, and there are even technologies like the implementation of LEDs inside the vine canopy that automatically turn on via a humidity sensor.

The problem is that all of this leads to higher maintenance costs, often requiring vineyard conversions. In the case of planting vines with pre-grafted roots, they are less resistant to increasingly high temperatures and undesirable times of the year, which causes the vines to have fewer internal reserves because the resting intervals are increasingly shorter, eventually exhausting the vine and causing it to die. Furthermore, with rising temperatures, there is an increase in vine pests and diseases known as "wood diseases" such as esca or eutypiosis.

On the other hand, in the field of oenology, these changes are increasingly resulting in wines that are less acidic, with more alcohol, more body, and fewer floral notes—in other words, precisely the opposite of what the consumer is looking for. This brings difficulties in winemaking, and even in more technical aspects, there are increasingly more problems in the fermentation of white wines, where the sugar content hinders alcoholic fermentation. In the case of red wines, there are immense difficulties in starting malolactic fermentation, since red grapes have less and less malic acid in their composition to be broken down.

3rd Problem: Lack of manpower:

The third major problem is undoubtedly the lack of manpower. Fewer and fewer people are interested in working in the wine sector. Newer generations increasingly prefer lighter jobs, less exposed to the weather and less attached to the land. When I was an intern at Château Latour, 80% of the workers, during the harvest, came from countries like Colombia. Proof of the times: someone once said, "Strong men create easy times, and easy times create weak men, but weak men create hard times, and hard times create strong men."

And, in fact, we are seeing more and more women in occupations that were previously done by men, such as simply driving agricultural tractors. Women, increasingly, in an attempt to show society in general and themselves, are accepting work in viticulture, not only in the context of the grape harvest, but also with a brush cutter on their backs. If in the past, much of the agricultural work was done by men, today we see more and more women in viticulture; I don't know if it's due to changing times or the fact that they are closer to nature, but it's a fact.

But aside from the debates about which gender is more prevalent in the fields, the reality is that there is increasingly less labor available to cultivate the vines. And what little labor there is, lacks the cultural profile for the activity and is expensive. The industry has sought technological solutions such as the application of robots, Dornes, sensors, and so on, but the viticultural activity, and particularly in the Douro region, finds it difficult to use certain technologies that remain costly and unproductive. Labor is needed, and in the vineyard or winery, it requires hard work and rolling up your sleeves.

Even large wine-producing companies are increasingly resorting to team services due to a lack of manpower on their staff.

Activities like digging have stopped being done because nobody wants to do "hard" work. Because of this, the vines are buried less, which causes the root system to become increasingly shallower, making the vines less resistant.

Never before has it been so easy to work in viticulture, and never before has there been such a labor shortage, which tends to decrease even further. Fertilizer bags have gone from 50 kilos to 25 kilos, and they're already heavy! Grapes have gone from being carried in baskets through steep vines to being transported in 15-kilo boxes placed on the back of a tractor. Irrigation is done using drip irrigation systems. Pruning is mechanical, and the application of pesticides and fertilizers is done with agricultural implements instead of heavy copper sprayers. But, in truth, nobody wants to work in the sector.

4th Problem (ours): the mindset:

While there are problems common to all wine-producing countries, there is one problem characteristic of Portugal: our mentality. This problem damages our image in the international wine sector, hinders our productive and economic capacity, and contributes to the stagnation and decline of the sector.

First of all, let me state that we weren't always like this. The Portuguese people, in their origins, were a warrior people, unafraid of the unknown and the impossible, who helped each other and never gave up. Today, we are an envious, individualistic people, resistant to change, or with a closed mind and no vision for the future. The strange thing is that technically we are among the best workers in the world when we are in developed countries, but when we are in our own country, we literally drag the country down. Abroad, when a machine breaks down in Germany or France, the Portuguese will find a way to put a wire in and get the machine working. But we lack the processes and structure to make the machines work at a constant and evolving pace.

Then we have the pettiness of "speaking ill" of our neighbor, finding fault with everything, and devising schemes. We don't help each other and seek easy and immediate results. We don't think long-term, we lack financial literacy, and we easily lose focus and concentration. We act reactively, we are always complaining, and we condemn the successful.

It's not that we are all the same, but a large part of the population is. This stagnates our progress, and since the wine sector itself is already closed off, we are further closing it off.

This damages our international image. We are associated with cheap wines made from grape varieties that are difficult to pronounce. We lack vision, cohesion, and meritocracy.

The Douro Valley was built by men of struggle, determination, and dynamism. But it has always been poorly exploited from the beginning. Port wine, to succeed, had to be explored by the British, Dutch, and even the French. It is perhaps the only type of wine whose name doesn't even reflect the region where it's produced. In the city of Porto, almost no wine is produced…

We don't know how to communicate, and that starts behind closed doors.

It is necessary for producers to unite around a common goal: to showcase the genuine quality of Portuguese wines. Restaurant owners have access to specific training courses on the sector, often free of charge, and they don't take advantage of them simply because they believe they don't need them. In fact, many restaurant owners were born into this business, having previously worked in restaurants. They know little about topics such as management, leadership, communication, and sales. They learned by "breaking stones" and haven't evolved over time. Simple things are sometimes enough to produce results, but they will be...simple results. It is necessary to know more, to learn how the best do it, and to understand the wine market.

Selling wine is not the same as selling Coca-Cola. There are specific places where wine should be stored, it must be served in a specific way according to the type of wine, understanding the heterogeneity of soils, regions and grape varieties, and even knowing its history. Communicating wine should be done with "a sparkle in your eyes." Coca-Cola is simply poured into a glass with ice and that's it. The big problem is that, with inflation, a can of Coca-Cola is now cheaper than some wines.

The sector is going through difficult times, but the blame lies with all market players , from restaurant owners to salespeople who are now called sales managers and key account managers, oenologists who prefer to be called winemakers, wine producers, marketing managers, etc. The "pompous" names have changed, but the fundamentals of their work shouldn't. In reality, the players aren't doing what really needs to be done. They don't adapt to change…they do things this way because "that's how it's always been done".

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WRITTEN BY:

Pedro Fernandes

Pedro Fernandes is a Portuguese winemaker who has been involved in viticulture since he was 11 years old, where he started making his first wines with his father and doing tasks such as pruning.

Since then he has never stopped and in 2018 he decided to dedicate himself to the wine sector, starting by doing "everything backwards". He began by taking wine specialization courses such as WSET (Direct Wine) and Wine Expertise (ISAG) in 2018/2019. Then he graduated from the University of Nebrijia in Madrid, obtaining an MBA in Oenology (2020). In 2021, at the age of 39, he decided to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Oenology (UTAD), and against all odds, he finished the course in 2024.

Along the way, he created his first personal wine brand - Chãos - and completed an internship at the prestigious Chateau Latour (in Bordeaux).

Currently, he works as a consultant in the wine sector, where he plays a role not only as an oenologist, but also in creating business strategies for wine producers, with a current vision of the market, which includes resources from Digital Marketing and Wine Tourism.