A bottle of red from Portugal's Alentejo could now come with more than a good hangover. The region's wine body, CVRA, has launched a nationwide promotion with Continente, Portugal's biggest supermarket chain, that turns wine purchases into chances to win hands-on experiences in the Alentejo itself.
The mechanics are simple. Spend at least €15 on Alentejo wines — in store or online — and you unlock access to an interactive game. Prizes include guided wine tastings, winery visits and overnight stays in the region. The campaign runs until October 22 and is being pushed through the Continente Card app, Continente.pt and physical stores, timed to coincide with the chain's wine fair.
It's a smart bit of marketing. CVRA says around four million Portuguese households hold a Continente Card, giving the campaign serious reach. Modern retail channels account for roughly half of all wine sold in Portugal, by volume and value, so the supermarket shelf is where the battle for drinkers' attention is really fought. The promotion carries the slogan "Um alentejano cai sempre bem" — roughly, "an Alentejo wine always goes down well".
Beyond shifting bottles, the wine commission wants to lift how much consumers value Alentejo wines and nudge average selling prices upward. Linking the product to the place is the strategy: the hope is that someone who wins a tasting in Évora wine country or a night at a quinta becomes a loyal ambassador for the region's wines back home.
For travellers, the campaign is a nudge to consider a part of Portugal that often plays second fiddle to the Douro Valley or the Algarve. The Alentejo is Portugal's largest wine region, known for bold reds made from grapes like Aragonez, Trincadeira and Alicante Bouschet, plus increasingly respected whites. It's a landscape of olive groves, cork oaks, wheat plains and whitewashed hill towns, with Évora — a UNESCO-listed city — as its cultural anchor. Many wineries welcome visitors for tastings and stays, and prices tend to be gentler than in Portugal's better-known tourist corridors.
You don't need to play the supermarket game to visit, of course — plenty of quintas run their own tastings and guest accommodation bookable directly. But if you're already in Portugal before late October and buying wine anyway, spending €15 on Alentejo bottles costs you nothing extra and could land you a free taste of the region firsthand.
One caveat for visitors: the game runs through the Continente Card app, so you'll likely need the app and a card to take part. Still, for wine-curious travellers planning a Portugal trip this autumn, it's a tidy excuse to point your itinerary inland — where the wine is made and, if the campaign works as intended, where you might end up drinking it.
Story via Portugal Resident.
