Red wine sales increased 1.8% and accounted for over 90.5 million bottles; white wine rose 10.9% to 24.7 million bottles and rosé rose 16.1% to 2.2 million bottles.

According to data from the Alentejo Regional Wine Commission (CVRA), the Alentejo region has placed on the market a volume corresponding to 117.4 million bottles of DOC Alentejo and Regional Alentejo certified wine, an increase of 3.8% over 2018. The total volume was 88.2 million liters, including red, white and rosé wine.

Sales included 70% of the 2018 harvest, 21% of the 2017 harvest, 5% of the 2016 harvest and 4% of previous harvests, with February, April and May having the largest trading activity with average quantities of 12.5. millions of bottles a month.

Sales of white and rosé wine in 2019 were the highest in the last five years and represented 21% and 2% of the total respectively, amounting to 24.7 million bottles in whites and 2.2 million bottles in rosés . Red wines, which were 77% of the total, reached 90.5 million bottles, 7 million less than the five-year average between 2014-2018.

Regional Alentejo wine accounted for 78% of sales and DOC Alentejo 22%, with DOC registering the most significant growth in wines originating in the Portalegre (+ 38%) and Granja-Amareleja (+ 17%) subregions.

To Francisco Mateus, president of CVRA, “these results reveal that the region is dynamic and that the productions each year influence the commercial potential of the producers, since the 2018 vintage had more production which allowed more sales in 2019, a situation that had not happened in the previous three years. ”

Regarding the growth of white and rosé wines, the president of CVRA says that “it is evidence that Alentejo is asserting itself in these categories and able to captivate consumers, a trend that we have observed for some years with the importance of whites and rosés increasing year after year since 2014 ”.
 
Regarding the lower volume of red wines, compared to the 2014-2018 average, Francisco Mateus explains “seeing in this decrease a combination of prices in the national market, as the average price of Alentejo wine is valued above the national average and also some caution producers in the management of red wine stocks ”.