Until September, Wines of Portugal will be in several Brazilian cities to promote Portuguese wines (26 events in total). ViniPortugal had planned city tastings for opinion makers and workshops about Portuguese wines for Horeca and off trade professionals. All the events are free and registrations should be made via e-mail. ViniPortugal strengths the training sessions in Brazil, started in 2012, and introduces a new level in training, to provide a deeper understanding of Portuguese wines to Horeca and off trade professionals, who are important opinion makers to consumers. About 800 professional will attend the 26 training sessions. Each one lasts 6 hours and features lessons about Portuguese wines and a guided wine tasting of several wines. The best students will be award with a try to Portugal. ViniPortugal also organizes City Tastings targeted to Brazilian press and opinion makers. City Tastings are dinners prepared by great Brazilian and Portuguese chefs where all food served is paired with Portuguese wines. The Sommelier Competition, which happens for the first time, is the outstanding event in Brazilian promotion campaign. The competition, created in association with two professional education institutions in Brazil - São Paulo SENAC and Rio de Janeiro, aims to attract the sommelier’s attention to Portuguese wines and use their influence to spread the wine consumption next to Brazilians, which are very interested in foreign wines and have a positive history connection to Portugal. Jorge Monteiro, ViniPortugal CEO, affirms that "Brazil is a market where Portugal has a positive image, but it’s necessary to keep investing in trained professionals: sommeliers, chefs, journalists and trade. Although Brazil is a very attractive market and Portugal is the fourth wine provider to this market, it’s important to know that Portuguese wines are competing not only with countries like Chile or Argentina, but also with other European wines". "Portuguese wines have a high potential in this market, because Brazilians are interested in wine and try to find different flavors and new wine experiences. Professionals and consumers should be delight by Portuguese wine quality and grape varieties. Portuguese wines embody different terroirs than our competitors and this world of difference should stand out with a well-organized and persistent communication and training plan", says the ViniPortugal CEO.