In May’s MagazineHM, we present an interview with Lucénio Saraiva, Export Director at Caves Primavera. Caves Primavera was founded in 1944 by two brothers, Lucénio and Vital de Almeida. Today they are one of Portugal’s largest wine exporters.
Interview
In almost 80 years of history, what have been the company’s biggest challenges and achievements?
The longevity of our company means that we have several key moments in our history. After being “born” in March 1944, the first important moment of change came in the mid-1950s with the construction of the base of our current facilities. This change, which brought with it the construction of a cellar, represented a turning of the page. Initially, Caves Primavera was located in the center of the village of Aguada de Baixo under the name Vinícola Primavera – it allowed us to rename ourselves Caves Primavera and start producing sparkling wines, in addition to the still wines we were already producing.
The big challenge from the moment we moved into the new premises and equipped ourselves properly, was from a commercial point of view – to grow the company from sales. The 60s, 70s and part of the 80s were essential for the growth of Caves Primavera, especially with the work carried out in the PALOP countries, but also with the opening up of markets in Northern Europe.
This growth led us to invest heavily in order to overcome one of the company’s challenges/gaps at the beginning of the 1990s, the lack of in-house winemaking. It was at the beginning of the 1990s that we built our winemaking center and began to receive and vinify grapes from the Bairrada region in-house.
Another important milestone occurred at the beginning of the millennium with the development and launch onto the market of our best-known product over the last few years – Espumante Primavera Baga Bairrada Bruto. A sparkling wine that has many admirers for its freshness, smoothness, creaminess, sweetness and beautiful salmon color.
In recent years, the big challenge has been to adapt our offer to an increasingly volatile market that demands more and more from the company: novelties, certifications, modernization of equipment, among many other things. We’ve been up to the task, but now we’re facing a new reality: the pandemic and the post-pandemic economy.
What do you see as the biggest challenges for the wines of the Bairrada region?
The Bairrada region needs a great deal of communication work to overcome the “stereotypes” associated with the region, which are less and less true.
The development we’ve seen in the region in recent years is remarkable. The quality of the products has grown exponentially. The idea of astringent red wines and acidic whites is the result of old ideas that are taking time to be dispelled by a market that is still somewhat “reluctant” towards Bairrada.
Today, in addition to the recognized quality of our sparkling wines, of which our region is the producer par excellence, with around 60% of the sparkling wines consumed in the country coming from this region, Bairrada’s red wines are wines to be consumed immediately, but with great potential to be aged wines, and our white wines are fresh and smooth. In addition, the Baga grape variety, which is a red grape variety and is the queen of the region, has gained great notoriety, being recognized worldwide for its qualities due to the great work that has been done by the region’s producers – foreign markets are beginning to look specifically for products with this grape variety.
The challenge now is to work on the region, through constant promotion, so that the market recognizes the region’s potential.
What are the characteristics of Bairrada sparkling wine that distinguish it from sparkling wines from other regions?
The region has an advantage over other regions in the production of sparkling wines, not only because of the accumulated know-how of many years of work by Bairrada’s producers, Bairrada has been producing this type of wine for over 100 years, but also because the region’s soils and climate allow it to grow grapes with the perfect characteristics in terms of acidity. In addition to these characteristics, which allow the product to stand out naturally, most of the companies in the region are equipped with structures specifically developed for the production of sparkling wines.
This combination of factors makes Bairrada sparkling wines stand out for their freshness, balance of aromas and flavors, minerality and creaminess, which guarantees an excellent mouthfeel.
What will be the sector’s biggest challenges over the next five years?
As in many sectors of the economy, the wine sector is no different – the pandemic has changed everything. If before the wine sector was growing with great vigor, increasing exports and introducing novelties with great frequency, the pandemic has “halted” this growth and presented a scenario of survival or reformulation of objectives for many companies in our sector.
At the moment, the big challenge will be to recover, and for that we have to wait for the market to start reacting normally, with the deconfinement and the search for a “return to normal”. Once we have an idea that the market is recovering, the challenge will then be to make wine and sparkling wines present again in people’s daily, social and celebratory moments and to recover the dynamics of promoting Portuguese wine that had been implemented with great success.
In commercial terms, we believe that with the signs of recovery it will be a good time to present new products to a market that will certainly be looking for something new and different. Export work will have to be a bit of a “back to basics” to reconnect with customers, with the contacts that had been made before the pandemic and to analyze the state of each market.
At the moment, it’s difficult to identify the biggest challenges for the next five years, as it depends on when we’ll be back to living “as before” and understanding the post-pandemic market.
You have been using some EU funds, particularly in the area of exports. Taking your experience into account, what would you like to see maintained and/or changed in the support planned for the next 7 years?
Community funds have been an important aid in our internationalization process, not only because of the prospect of opening up new markets, but also because they help to support costs that help us retain customers. They are an excellent “tool” for supporting Portuguese exports.
The current dynamics of support should be maintained, with direct support for travel and accommodation, both on the direct and reverse side – very important for pleasing and retaining customers. We believe that the rule on support for expenses outside the scope of travel and accommodation, general travel expenses (outside SME Internationalization, for example) or expenses still in Portugal, which are involved in a trip, should be strengthened. The funds allocated to promotional support should be re-examined so that they are in line with what national companies are looking for (for example, strengthening support for digital marketing, which is becoming increasingly influential).
We believe that support should be updated, adapting it to the post-pandemic world, which will demand different dynamics from companies than we have seen so far.