British wine expert praises Portuguese wines

Portuguese and Greek wines are the ones to look out for according to the online site from top UK wine critic Jancis Robinson.

In an article posted on May 20, the newspaper weekend supplement and TV star puts the “quality of Portuguese wines down to their array of indigenous grape varieties combined with dramatically improved winemaking and less than established reputations, offering originality and value”.
The article says that wine importer Skurnik in New York, which sells wine from both countries, says of Portuguese wines: “This is a category we couldn’t be more bullish on. In the last five years sales have increased 65% to 70%. It has been a great success story as so far this has been the best year ever”.
Brazil is the most valuable market for Portugal, followed by the US which has “substantially increased its imports of Portuguese table wines over the past few years” while Angola and other Portuguese speaking countries are also big importers according to the feature article which also appeared in the Financial Times.
The article goes on to say that while Portuguese wines in the US were viewed as “obscure” now that so many Americans are discovering Portugal which has become a desirable destination brand, the word “obscure” has all but disappeared to replaced by “allocation” – meaning they are now on US importers lists.
Apparently, the revamping of both Porto and Lisbon since 2012 has spurred more tourists prepared to try Portuguese wines and has made the market “explode”:
“It’s like what Santorini has done for Greek wine” says Max Working of Importer Skurnik of New York. The rest of the article can be read here: https://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/selling-portugal-wine-lovers