Adega Centenária Malápio Awarded Honourable Mention at the 2026 Luso-French Trophies

The Portuguese brand MALÁPIO® was awarded an Honourable Mention in the Sustainable Development category at the 32nd edition of the Luso-French Trophies, organised by the Luso-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The ceremony took place on 13 October at SUD Lisboa and brought together around 200 representatives from the Luso-French business community. The Honourable Mention awarded to the Portuguese brand MALÁPIO® highlighted a small-scale project that seeks to combine wine production with the revival of traditional practices, the conservation of built heritage and the enhancement of the region’s natural and cultural resources. The distinction comes in the context of the Luso-French Trophies, which aim to recognise Portuguese and French companies for their contribution to economic relations between the two countries, covering areas such as exports, investment, innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainable development. In the case of the Portuguese brand MALÁPIO®, the recognition focused on a production philosophy based on the use of century-old clay vessels, manual harvesting and minimal intervention throughout the winemaking process. The project is based in Aguada de Baixo, in the municipality of Águeda, in the heart of the Bairrada region, and revives a family connection to agriculture, wine and pottery. The winery was founded by Romeu Martins, who found in the memory of his grandfather Aristides, a master potter from the region, one of the main sources of inspiration for the project. Clay therefore assumes a significance that goes beyond the technical aspects of production. The vessels used for fermentation establish a direct connection with his grandfather’s craft and with practices that, for centuries, formed part of wine production and preservation in different regions of Portugal. On the property, this appreciation of the past also extends to the preservation of elements of rural architecture, including the winery’s adobe walls, as well as to the revival of working methods associated with lower-intervention agriculture. The Portuguese brand MALÁPIO® also works with an old vineyard where different grape varieties coexist within the same plot, reflecting a layout that was once common in traditional Portuguese vineyards before the widespread adoption of plantings organised by individual varieties. Among the grapes grown are varieties historically associated with Portuguese viticulture and with Bairrada itself, a region where Atlantic influence, clay-limestone soils and the presence of varieties such as Baga, Bical and Maria Gomes have helped shape a distinctive wine identity. The grapes are harvested by hand and the wines are fermented in clay vessels, in an approach designed to reduce the use of technology and oenological products during the production process. According to information provided by the winery, the vessels are prepared using natural materials, including beeswax and pine resin, reviving techniques that predate the widespread use of modern winemaking equipment. This combination of traditional practices and environmental concerns lies at the heart of the project’s positioning and helps explain its inclusion among the nominees for the Sustainable Development award. Rather than presenting tradition as a decorative element, the winery seeks to integrate it into its production model, transforming inherited techniques, materials and knowledge into components of a contemporary economic activity. Alongside wine production, the Portuguese brand MALÁPIO® has also been developing an wine tourism offer through which visitors can discover the vineyard, the winery, the clay vessels and the methods used. The initiative places the wine within the territory where it is produced and brings visitors closer to an agricultural and cultural reality that remains closely linked to Bairrada’s identity. The Honourable Mention received at the 2026 Luso-French Trophies adds a new dimension to the development of this project. In a sector where sustainability is becoming increasingly important, the experience of the Portuguese brand MALÁPIO® shows how some answers may also be found in the recovery of knowledge and practices that predate the industrialisation of production processes. It is also an example of how a region’s tangible and intangible heritage can acquire renewed relevance when integrated into an economic activity capable of preserving and passing it on. In Bairrada, clay, old vineyards and family memory therefore no longer belong solely to the past. They have become part of a contemporary approach to winemaking and a distinctive way of adding value to Portuguese territory.