Fernando Lobo Guedes, the chairman of the board of directors of the largest Portuguese wine company, although, since 2000, he has left the executive management of the company for the children and retired, and son of the founder of Sogrape, passed away on Wednesday , at the age of 87.
Born in Penafiel, Fernando Guedes received training in oenology in France and joined the then “Sociedade Comercial dos Vinhos de Mesa de Portugal” (Table Wines of Portugal) in 1952, where he began as an apprentice cooper. He was technical director of production between 1957 and 1985, and assumed the presidency of Sogrape from 1987. Fernando Guedes was one of the first three graduated Portuguese winemakers. This diploma allowed him, in the 60s and 70s, to contribute to the “exponential” growth of Mateus Rosé’s worldwide sales. It was the business success of this distinguished wine, sometimes criticized, that gave financial freedom to the company to create other labels — including the Barca Velha Douro, considered as the most expensive and iconic Portuguese wine whose value varies depending on the year of harvest.
Fernando Guedes with his three children
He also held many other management positions in several companies, such as Água de Carvalhelhos or Barbosa & Almeida, and institutions such as the Commercial Association of Porto, the Serralves Foundation or the Portuguese Society of Innovation.
A TRUE GENTLEMAN WITH A CAPTIVATING CHARM
He was married to Mrs. Ana Mafalda Maria Antónia de Mello Falcão Trigoso da Cunha Mendonça e Menezes, with whom they have three children: Salvador, Manuel Pedro and Fernando. A statement on the company’s profile describes the patriarch as “a true gentleman” with a captivating charm, a constant gentleness that almost made him apologize when explaining that Sogrape’s successful career is based on the values of education of an old family who always depended on agriculture and always promoted respect for others as a way of being, refusing to regard profit as the primary objective. “I usually say that the shareholders who are only focused on the dividend itself will not feel happy at Sogrape. Because our focus on value creation lies, above all, on growing the business and valuing the human assets. We have always been like this: it is a matter of education and culture”, said Fernando Guedes, as quoted in the same biographical note. Fernando Guedes never failed to follow the activity of the northern company. At the age of 87 he kept going to his office every morning, as well as visiting the farms and wineries of the company, both in Portugal and abroad, part of the business empire to which he contributed most. Throughout his life he received a number of honorary distinctions, including the Order of the British Empire (1989), the Grand Officer of the Agricultural, Commercial and Industrial Order of Merit (1995) and the Grand Cross of the Order of Agricultural, Commercial Merit and Industrial (2001). Honorary member of the Business Association of Portugal, he was awarded the Institution’s Medal of Honor in recognition of the “intransigent defense” of the companies’ interests and the national economy. A major figure and one of the greatest Portuguese entrepreneurs of the last decades, he is an inspiration for many generations of Portuguese and foreign entrepreneurs, whose work throughout his long career provided a boost that kicked off Sogrape towards a recognition that has much contributed to the affirmation of Portugal’s image abroad. A great master of the world of wines. During the 80s, Sogrape sought to free itself from the dependence of Mateus Rosé, the Portuguese wine sales champion in the world, creating a “representative portfolio of quality wines from the main Portuguese wine regions”: Vinhos Verdes, Bairrada, Dão and, of course, the Douro. In addition to Porto Ferreira, Sogrape has in its portfolio iconic brands such as Grão Vasco, Herdade do Peso, Barca Velha, or Sandeman, already acquired under the responsibility of the new generation. It is also under the leadership of Salvador Guedes, his eldest son, that Sogrape extends its operations to the new wine world, with the acquisition of Finca Flichman in Argentina in 1997; Framingham in New Zealand, ten years later; and Los Bodos in Chile in 2008. In 2012 Lan was bought in Spain and this year Bodegas Aura. Fernando Guedes attributed the success of the brand to the will of his father, Fernando van Zeller Guedes, to distinguish himself from the others. “Mateus’ secret relies on the fact that my father wanted to be different.”
