Domingos Soares Franco, senior winemaker at José Maria da Fonseca who completed 40 harvests in 2020, was distinguished with the award “Wine Personality of the Year” by Revista de Vinhos, a leading wine publication in Portugal.

According to Revista de Vinhos, this award was due to the fundamental influence that Domingos Soares Franco had on the development of the wine sector in Portugal. Domingos is a “new-world” thinker, driven by his academic education in the US, who modernized the winemaking business in Portugal.

Domingos has travelled around the globe in search of the new equipment and technology and had dedicated a great part of his work to viticulture, researching and replanting vineyards and building on the family’s ampelographic collection. The publication describes Domingos Soares Franco as a “leading Portuguese winemaker”, “one with the highest knowledge of worldwide trends, who is at the same time capable of blending an extraordinary fortified Moscatel, but also surprise us with an alcohol-free wine”. Domingos is an ambassador of José Maria da Fonseca, of Portuguese wines around the world and with his charismatic personality is one of the great winemakers in Portugal.

For Domingos Soares Franco, this accolade was received with a lot of joy and emotion. His first reaction was to make a mental movie of his life’s memories, visualizing the faces of those who have influenced him over the years. Domingos is “extremely happy and thankful to Revista de Vinhos for nominating him Personality of the Year. Now it is time to slow down, but never stop thinking about the future, innovating and trying to implement new ideas, without relinquishing the roots and heritage from the past. These are times that make Domingos remember all of those who had such an important role in his life: his parents, his five sons, his uncle António and a small group of Portuguese winemakers, most of them educated in France, that were responsible for kickstarting the movement of Portuguese wines around the world.

As a celebration of his 40th harvest, still in 2020, Domingos Soares Franco presented his newest wines from his Private Collection: two single varietal red wines – Colecção Privada DSF Malbec e Colecção Privada DSF Cabernet Sauvignon and the new vintage and packaging of the fortified Colecção Privada DSF Moscatel Cognac.