The ‘Cooperativa Agrícola de Reguengos de Monsaraz’ has about 900 members and has been producing wines and olive oils that have become synonymous with excellence in the most demanding markets.
‘CARMIM – Cooperativa Agrícola de Reguengos de Monsaraz’ was created in 1971 by a group of 60 winegrowers with the aim of producing and marketing the wine made from the grapes they produced. Today, with about 900 members, CARMIM has produced, over these years of history, quality wines and olive oils, which have become synonymous with excellence in the most demanding markets. The company also leads in the national market in the segment of quality wines. CARMIM wines have been distinguished with more than 600 awards in several national and international reference competitions, as Miguel Feijão, president of the CARMIM Board of Directors, said in this interview.
How do you define CARMIM?
CARMIM is recognized in Portugal and throughout the world as being the largest cooperative in Alentejo and one of the largest cooperatives in the wine sector in Portugal. Although there are two or three cooperatives that harvest more grapes than we do, it is CARMIM that has the highest sales volume in the country in terms of bottled wine.
How do you characterize CARMIM wines?
They are Alentejo wines and the region itself is currently a noble region in the wine production.
A few years ago people spoke about the Douro and before that about Dão, the ‘Oeste’ is still worthy in terms of production volume, but Alentejo, due to the amount of hours of sunlight, to its soils and by having increasingly solved the lack of water problem, is a noble region for the wine production.
This year you had two more of your wines awarded internationally.
CARMIM is celebrating another achievement. The wine ‘Reguengos Reserva dos Sócios 2016’ received the Great Gold Medal and the ‘Monsaraz DOC Red 2017’ was awarded the Gold Medal at the ‘Sélections Mondiales des Vins Canada’, the main North American wine contest which was held in Quebec, Canada.
Will the Irrigation Plan of Reguengos de Monsaraz help to produce more?
No doubt. CARMIM is a large wine company and also a company with large productions. In 2014, we harvested 23 million kilos of grape, in 2015 more than 21 million kilos, in 2016, we harvested 17.5 million kilos and in 2017 we harvested about 15 million kilos of grape.
We have been reducing the amount of kilos of grapes we harvest without having less vineyard. Water is a fundamental factor for grape and wine to live, grow, reproduce and to reach their good production conditions.
We have been fighting for this, even before joining CARMIM’s governing bodies, in 2010 I started with a few farmers here in Reguengos de Monsaraz a series of meetings and gatherings, both with local and public authorities, as well as with EDIA itself, in order to get a an extension project of the Alqueva Irrigation Plan, stipulated at that date, made into the municipality of Reguengos de Monsaraz.
Today, this is a fact as the project exists. It is currently going through the environmental impact study, since it already has the financing guaranteed by the European Investment Bank. Once that study is concluded, the international competition will be launched. Most probably by 2022 we will have enough water to irrigate our vineyards. From that moment, each company will work with its own ability and knowledge.
Despite of other climatic conditions, such as heat (if we have 40 days at 40 degrees as last year, no water saves the grapes) in principle, taking sufficient water and having a favorable climate, with the technology that we have in the winery, the know-how our associated winemakers have and with the help of good technicians, we have medium-term prospects to produce wine with quality and in quantity, able to satisfy all the country and to export.
We export about 25 percent of our production.
In which markets are you present?
Currently, our main export market is Brazil. We have been on hold for about a year in Angola due to the currency problem. In 2016, we did not sell to Angola, but we resumed in 2017 and somehow we regained our relationship with the country through other operators and it has been going very well this year.
We export some quantity to the United States and in a large extent to Europe. Europe is our ‘nostalgia market’ it is not the French who drinks our wine, although some might taste it. In Switzerland, Luxembourg or Germany it is not just the ‘nostalgia market’, as already other people drink it.
Can we say that CARMIM was also one of the companies that helped promote the consumption of bottled wine in Portugal?
There is no doubt as we were one of the entities that massified, helped and taught the country to drink wine. Even today, in the north of the country, many restaurants have our ‘Terras d’El-Rei’ and ‘Reguengos’ references as the house wine, because 30 years ago we were one of the few ‘players’ in the market with capacity in volume and in quantity for people to like our wine, remaining faithful consumers of it. This happened for many years. Nowadays in the supermarkets we find CARMIM brands and 500 other brands, but we opened the way.
In the 90’s, 2000, the vineyard in Alentejo was considered the “El Dorado” having been followed a similar path of the search for it: small private wineries proliferated, some still exist, some were successful and others not. Still we remain here and continue in the market as before with both our capacity and our quality.
If we are commercially able to be in the market like others, ‘CARMIM’ will certainly last for many years and will provide return to its members.
What is the purpose of the Photovoltaic Power Plant construction, inaugurated this year?
We have our facilities spread over 8 hectares, about 80 thousand square meters of land. We are equipped with several buildings each one with its own functions and its own importance within CARMIM. We had an annual electricity invoice of about 250 thousand euros, and also a few tens of thousands of euros in water expenses, so we started by reducing the electricity expense.
Although we can announce that we have lowered the ecological footprint and that we have had a commendable attitude towards environmental sustainability, our main goal was to reduce electricity expenses.
We did not do the photovoltaic power plant just because we are environmentally friendly. We did the plant to save money on electricity and to be self-sustaining. This is a photovoltaic power station of direct consumption, we do not even have batteries.
Today we are autonomous in terms of electricity production. It is necessary to emphasize that the Photovoltaic Power Plant has as main objective our economic sustainability and, consequently, our environmental sustainability.
What about the investment on the Wine Tourism?
Wine tourism is still a small activity, because we are not a private entity, or a private producer, there was no decision to create the structures of wine tourism.
We have tried, in a timid manner, to invest in wine tourism in order to gain more visibility and to be more appealing for visitors. Even today people visit us more for the industrial scale, rather than for the landscape beauty.
We are gradually associating the landscape, the vineyard, the countryside, Monsaraz, the Alqueva Dam (that has attracted many people to Reguengos) and we are trying to attract them to ‘CARMIM’ by showing them the winery from the inside, the cellars and our wines’ storage, aging and treatment capacity. We always end up with a wine tasting that people really appreciate and where they can also get to buy the wines they have tasted, still it represents a small part of our activity.
We intend to gradually pool small sums and like others we want to have a strong wine tourism component. But of course we must associate a few more factors than just a visit to the winery.
It is not easy to tell our associates that we are going to pay less than 1 cent per kilo of grapes to spend 500,000 euros to improve the wine tourism project. This is one of the challenges we face.
Can one consider that there is a new strategic positioning in relation to ‘CARMIM’ olive oils?
In ‘CARMIM’ olive oil production is as old as wine production.
In 1971 we established ‘CARMIM’ in terms of winery and in terms of oil press. For some years we still worked with an old-fashioned oil press and then we modernized our cold oil extraction mill, which allowed us to extract extra virgin olive oil. We are surrounded by ancient olive groves, some millennia, many centenary, where the “Galega” olive variety, very typical of this region, lasts. Our olive oils have the quality of the “Galega” olives that have special characteristics to create great olive oils. Although they are not the type of oils that today people look for in the supermarkets, very bitter and even of difficult tasting, they are soft oils, with an almond flavour.
When we started four years ago, the olive oil was almost all sold in bulk and in 5 liters containers, but we decided to create references related with the quality, the look and the essence that olive oils show. We created a gourmet variety, designed bottles of 75cl, created the cruet that has been very successful in the market of the restaurant sector. At the same time we made a red wine vinegar to complement the olive oil in the cruet.
Deep down, we changed the way we look at the olive oil business. Previously it was to do it and to sell it, now we create more value and we take it to the market by pointing out its quality. This fact made the average value per kilogram of olive oil much higher than that we previously had. It used to be a secondary product and today for us it is our crown jewel.