Baixo Alentejo won the 2026 European Wine City Organization, in a decision taken this Saturday at the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Association of Portuguese Municipalities of Wine () held in Alandroal, in the Évora district.
Speaking to the Lusa Agency, the Secretary-General of AMPV, José Arruda, explained that the candidacy involving 13 municipalities of Baixo Alentejo won the title, compared to the other two competing projects, one that brought together eight municipalities of the Algarve and the other eight municipalities of three islands of the Azores.
“The three candidacies presented the respective projects, at the General Assembly of AMPV held in the late afternoon, and then the 73 associated municipalities present vote through secret vote,” he said.
In the end, he continued, “Baixo Alentejo won with 43 votes and then the Algarve was followed by the Azores.”
According to José Arruda, the Baixo Alentejo European Wine City project 2026, which foresees “a series of actions and proposals to develop next year,” will start to move.
“Next June 18, a project will be presented in the European Parliament, to the various MEPs, in Strasbourg, France, he said.
The Baixo Alentejo European Wine City project 2026 is promoted by the Baixo Alentejo Intermunicipal Community (Cimbal), in partnership with the regional tourism entity (ERT) of Alentejo and Ribatejo.
In total, it covers 13 of the 14 municipalities of the Beja district, that is, it reaches all the associates of Cimbal, leaving only the municipality of Odemira, which, despite integrating the same district, is part of the intercity community of Alentejo Litoral.
On April 22, in statements to Lusa, the president of Tourism of Alentejo and Ribatejo, José Manuel Santos, considered that the candidacy dossier was “strong and consistent”.
And he explained that one of the objectives of the candidacy, which proposes “more than 20 activities, three of them with world impact”, is “contributing to the increase of internationalization of the region”.
Project initiatives will seek that “the whole universe linked to wine, culture, heritage and the identity of the Baixo Alentejo can be better known in international markets,” he said.
Marking the quality and history of wine produced in this region, José Manuel Santos recalled that Baixo Alentejo “produces wines for over two thousand years” and alluded to the “millennial heritage of carving wine”.
“This wine reality is clearly distinctive and automatically puts the candidacy on a projection level,” he assumed at the time.
Also in statements to Lusa, that same day, Cimbal President António Bota stressed that the Baixo Alentejo region is the one that “presents better and more wines for the new consumer, with new consumer rules.”
“While drank a lot of wine a few years ago, today we drink less and of higher quality and Alentejo has this supply panoply and the widening tourist market is very significant in Baixo Alentejo,” he said.
António Bota, who is also mayor of Almodôvar, highlighted the existence of companies that are dedicated to wine tourism, with diversified programs, and almost 200 rural tourism units, which also combine wine with other initiatives.
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