F**k 2020 wine is Christmas sensation

A Portuguese wine with a rather cheeky and risqué name is proving to lighten spirits this Christmas as a surprising limited edition best seller!

An obvious and clever marketing gimmick, the wine “Que se foda 2020” (F**k 2020) seems to best sum up what most people have been thinking about the past year but perhaps wouldn’t say in public — except through buying this bottle.
In just two days all 1000 bottles that had been produced sold out and the makers have decided to rush a second batch into production to satisfy demand.
And for now, the only bottle left has the hefty price tag of €1 million as an art form aimed at well-heeled collectors.
The label was designed by Portuguese plastics art artist Francisco Eduardo, 36, who teamed up with the Adega da Azueira winery in the Lisbon region to develop the project.
Adega de Azueira has existed for more than 50 years and produces about 10 million litres of wine annually, 85% of which is red, and 15% is white. Currently, it has 400 active producer members and its vineyards cover around 1,200 hectares of land.
More than 25 years ago, it started expanding into the African market, namely Angola, by opening a branch in the capital city of Luanda. Leaning on this success, the opportunity for expansion into other international markets came up and Adega de Azueira is now selling on four continents.
In recent years it has invested in diversifying national and international grape varieties in order to improve the wines produced, as well as increasing the production of certified wines in the Lisbon region.
“The idea was inspired by this year and everything that people have been going through. People are fed up with not being able to freely go out into the street and do the things they usually did. I felt the need to exteriorise this,” Francisco Eduardo told NiT FM.
The artist, who is from Aveiro and studied at the Porto School of Fine Arts (Escola de Belas Artes do Porto) where some of what he learnt was put to good use in this creation, said, “We always learnt to do things other than just painting. The best tool is our imagination where we can put our ideas into images,” he said.
And those who know him say that he is not a rude person and given to throw around swear words willy-nilly. “I’m not one to swear often since it is something that would not go down well with my family,” but nevertheless, he says there are times when “you have to say it as it is.”
“I married a Porto girl and learnt through her that a swear word said at the right time and in the right context is no bad thing. The idea was not to insult the year, but rather to give a cry of hope and not despair,” says Francisco Eduardo.
He has already worked for and still does work sometimes for advertising agencies, but currently has a company with another partner called ‘Eles’ where he does advertising artwork, designs and screen printing.
Wine labels is another area his firm does, hence the reason he was chosen since he had already clocked up some experience.
Although it is not certain, Francisco Eduardo believes that a second batch will be available by the end of the year and the company has already received requests from Brazil and Switzerland.