Herdade da Malhadinha Nova – One day, a dream: Turn life into a celebration

With the intention of being close to those who create value, the president of COMPETE 2020, Rui Vinhas da Silva visited, on the 29th of January, the Malhadinha Nova Estate, where success is found in each detail: be it the careful treatment of the vineyards, the practical sophistication of the wine cellar or the captivating luxury of the rural tourism centre.

“Herdade da Malhadinha Nova configures an integrated strategic project, thought out with maximum care to ensure consumption complementarities that bring out the virtues of integrated consumption experiences. Everything is planned and conceived to anticipate bottlenecks and obstacles and action materializes in concrete answers to specific market demands. There is a tacit recognition that consumption requirements are clearly differentiated across a wide variety of very demanding business and consumer markets, that these are heterogeneous in their characterization and therefore require singular and distinct responses to them. All of this relies on extremely good taste, professionalism and total dedication. Herdade da Malhadinha Nova is therefore an exceptional example of a holistic and integrated approach to business. This translates into a constant concern with the identification of relevant differences in savvy markets, which seek novelty, high quality and integrated consumption experiences. In so doing Herdade da Malhadinha Nova has attained sustainable competitive advantages that are very difficult to replicate given their extraordinary singularity. This is an excellent example of entrepreneurship in the Portuguese economy.” (Rui Vinhas da Silva, Presidente do COMPETE 2020).

Brief History of Malhadinha Nova  

Malhadinha Nova is a typical Alentejo family wine estate situated in Albernoa, a small village in the heart of Baixo Alentejo. It is a place of freedom and endless horizons.

Since 1998, when the Soares family bought the estate, their passion and commitment have transformed a long-abandoned land into fields that give life to genuine, high-quality Alentejo wine.

The perfect weather conditions of the Alentejo, the schist-based soils, the well-drained slopes of the property as well as the carefully selected grape varieties - Touriga Nacional, Aragonês, Alicante Bouschet, Tinta Miuda, Baga, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah (varieties of red grapes) and Arinto, Roupeiro, Antão Vaz, Alvarinho, Verdelho, Viognier and Petit Manseng (varieties of white grapes) - make up the Terroir of Malhadinha Nova with unique conditions for producing wines with unique character and great quality.

Malhadinha Nova is the result of a dream... the dream of producing a great wine, the best wine in the world. There are three factors contributing to this: the unique conditions of the location, more than 10 years experience of producing wine and the passion of the team involved. From this, a wide range of reds, whites and rosés were created. Each wine tells its story.

The difference and uniqueness are also marked by the labels, fruit of the creativity of the younger generation of the Soares family. The children name the wines and tenderly design their labels.

The wines of Malhadinha Nova are elegant, intensely fruity and very complex. They are the result of the respect for nature, the passion and dedication involved. The first plant of the vineyard was planted by Francisca, the first offspring of the family's new generation. 

Today Malhadinha's wines are a reference, distinguished with several international prizes and exported to over 25 countries.

The “COMPETE 2020: close to those who create value” initiative

This visit was part of the initiative “COMPETE 2020: close to those who create value”, dedicated to the wine industry.

During the course of a week, this initiative included the visit to 16 companies of the wine sector, seeking to cover the whole territory of continental Portugal. The diversity of the sector and its regional representation allowed for a selection of company trajectories that we intend to get to know and analyze.

According to the president of COMPETE 2020, Rui Vinhas da Silva, the purpose of these visits to the wine sector was to “bring this Programme closer to the companies, with the awareness that the economic instruments at their service should contribute to position the Portuguese economy within the philosophy of the creation and addition of value to innovative products and services, based on an absolute awareness of the competitive nature of sophisticated international markets, seeking to reflect its heterogeneity and specificities.”