With the aim to attract between 1,000 and 1,500 people to The Cube, a historic building in the Californian city, the festival will feature wines from 44 Portuguese producers, gastronomic offerings prepared by Portuguese-American chef Telmo Faria, and a performance by fado singer Helder Carvalheira, both based in San Francisco.

"We chose the United States as a potential market, with a very interesting reputation for Portuguese wines and significant international growth potential," explained Isabel Marrana.

"We're bringing together a lot of people, many flavours, many wine varieties, many grape varieties," she described. "We have a lot to offer the trade and American consumers."

Increase sales

The purpose of the Port Wine Fest is, above all, to increase wine sales in the North American market and promote Portugal as a tourist destination, with a focus on wine tourism.

The executive director emphasized that there will be specific hours and tastings for consumers and purchasing managers at the festival. "What we want is for restaurants to have Portuguese wines on their menus, for American and San Francisco wine cellars to have Portuguese wines, and for consumers to want to drink them, to know what they're ordering, to identify the experience they came to Portugal for."

The Port Wine Fest takes place at a time when the imposition of import tariffs by the current Donald Trump administration has affected international trade. However, Isabel Marrana said that the AEVP remains firm in its conviction that this is a long-term market.

"The uncertainty surrounding tariffs only creates greater challenges and has not diminished the opportunity," she emphasized. "The United States continues to be an extremely important market for Portuguese wines, particularly for Douro and Port wines," she noted.

More visible

Receptiveness has increased as Portugal becomes more visible. "A few years ago, we still had to use maps to explain where Portugal was, but today we don't," said Isabel Marrana. "We have a strong commitment from both the trade and, especially, the consumer, which clearly encourages us to make this energetic, investment-driven, and passionate effort to bring Portuguese wines to the three corners of the world."

The San Francisco visit is the first of three in this programme, followed by Chicago on October 2nd and New York on October 6th. This set of initiatives is funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), with resources allocated until June 2026.

"By combining gastronomy with wines, traditional Portuguese music, and tourism, we truly have a tremendous offering, especially in terms of price/quality. It's absolutely unbeatable."