Jose Neiva Correia is the owner and chief winemaker producing wines since the harvest of 1974. Control of 400 ha of single estates mainly in Lisboa wine region. Today they export 98.5% to 54 countries.
José Neiva Correia had two training ports : Gesenheim in Germany and Bordeaux in France. This allowed him to discover different methods of production, to compare them and to be inspired later to make his own wines. Today, he is still a consultant for four competing companies (50 million liters).
At all times, José Neiva Correia, a descendant of several generations of winegrowers, has followed the family tradition. However, he has never stopped doing research, inventing ways to modernize his work and improve the quality of wines, or creating solutions for winemakers from here and elsewhere. His products respond to modern issues, both from the point of view of consumers and producers.
For 35 years, he worked with the engineer Octavio Pato, one of the best Portuguese winemakers in the 60s, 70s and 80s. With this experience and his laboratory work, José Neiva Correia learned how to analyze wine, water, earth, leaves, etc., and all this has allowed him to deepen his knowledge. He is particularly distinguished thanks to a patent he has filed for a method of disinfecting corks.
The Wine Cathedral – Quinta da Fonte Bela
Located in Vila Chã de Ourique – Cartaxo, 80 km north of the city of Lisbon, it is a unique centennial property. Most of the buildings belong to the so-called “Cast iron architecture” used in the second half of the 19th century by the followers of Eiffel. All facilities were designed by engineers from the studio Eiffel, who at the time were in Portugal designing public works, such as the Santa Justa elevator in Lisbon and the D. Luís bridge in Porto. The owner of the Quinta at the time (António Francisco Ribeiro Ferreira) took advantage of the presence of these engineers and commissioned plans for what would become the center of his agricultural activity. The first building came to be the cellar completed in 1897. The exterior architecture is also unique in Portugal as it is characteristic of the south of France and the Balearic Islands, which were certainly the origin of the engineers.
Also known as the Wine Cathedral, Quinta da Fonte Bela is composed of several buildings, among which we find the headquarters of DFJ where are the offices, a winemaking center, a Bottling Line, warehouses, a cellar with a capacity of 9.3 million liters, Cooperage, Laboratory and Living room. All in a total of 17,197 m 2 and a covered area of 8,063 m 2 .
Very recently, DFJ VINHOS, S.A. has been recognized and awarded Twelve Gold Medals and Seven Silver Medals by AsiaImportNews Asia Awards 2020.
Interview of MR. LUIS GOUVEIA – Sales & Marketing Director
Question 1: Do you already export to Asia ? If yes, where ? If no, what type of importers & distributors are you looking for in Asia ?
We already export to Asia: China, Macao, HK, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea
Question 2: What is the most unique and qualitative part of your products, different from competitors ?
Our goal is to find opportunities with the importer to produce in Portugal the wines that consumers like in the destination. We try to offer wines that give pleasure and are multipurpose, either at the table, a meeting of friends or a social event. Being Portuguese we have a great concern with the quality but also with the price. The strength of our offer are wines with an excellent ratio price, quality and recognition. In 2019 alone, we won 564 prizes, being 38 trophies and 197 gold medals.
Question 3: When did you start to export your brand worldwide, and what is your development plan for the next years?
DFJ VINHOS born in 1998 with the objective to export to the United Kingdom. In the UK, two of the three original partners are importers since the 70’s. The 3rd partner was the Portuguese oenologist in which they trusted to produce the wines to the taste of the English consumer. Since 2005, the oenologist is the sole owner of the company. Today we export 99% of the volume we produce to more than 50 countries.
We plan to grow In quality, working to maintain the Certification of the Quality BRC – AA highest level.
We plan to grow our own production, today 250 ha of vineyards of which 200 are under environment sustainable practices.
We plan to increase our partnership with producers (400 ha) to get with them better grapes.
We increased recently the vats capacity to 12,5 million liter.
We want also to increase our innovation in blends and packaging. Because of that our signature THE NEW PORTUGAL.
Thank you very much MR. LUIS GOUVEIA for your time and answer !
For more information about their wines, CLICK HERE
