Quinta dos Vales – A dream fulfilled

 In Eno Resorts, Entrepreneur, News, Property, Wine

At Quinta dos Vales, this month marks the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. After 17 years as the helm of the project, Karl Heinz Stock has now passed on the management and ownership to João Cascão. In this article Essential Business outlines how Karl’s international career experiences have influenced the past 17 years of his activities in Portugal.

Over the years, Quinta dos Vales has established itself as one of the leading wineries in the south of Portugal, but anyone who has visited will know that wine is far from the company’s only activity.

Launched with the dual focus of wine & art, the entire estate is one huge open-air art exhibition, set amongst award-winning vineyards.

In addition to the usual winery tours, wine tastings and workshops, visitors to Quinta dos Vales can also organise celebrations set within this unique environment, while in recent years true wine-lovers are even able to become involved in the production of their own bespoke wines, as part of The Winemaker Experience.

Rather than focus on what has been developed at the estate, Karl explains why he took the decisions that he did. We are all the sum of our experiences, and Karl is no different. He took the lessons learned from his former careers and applied these to this new chapter of his life.

Karl started his career as a corporate banker in Germany, became a real estate developer in post-soviet Russia, retired to Portugal, and then returned for another stint in the big-business world of Moscow primarily in the oil industry.

All this took place prior to ever starting his first commercial activity in Portugal. So in a way it is unsurprising that such a diverse background led to a unique approach in the next phase of his career.

Innovation

Karl has always been an alternative thinker, taking his own approach to every situation that he faced over the years. There is no better example than when he had just moved to Russia in 1988 to launch the STT Group, the first real estate development company of the post-Soviet era.

The company later grew, and at its peak employed over 4.000 people, but its origins were far more modest. As relative newcomers, the founders of the STT group were faced with a considerable challenge; the aim of real estate development is to develop and sell real estate, but at this time in post-Soviet Russia the very concept of legal ownership did not even yet exist.

Rather than let this hinder him, Karl used this problem as an opportunity. He established connections, and later coordinated the efforts for the first real estate laws of Russia to be drafted, with him personally acting as coordinator between the Russian government, the legal department of Moscow University and some of the top international lawyers in Europe.

For this ground-breaking achievement, which required the setup of the first private Russian law firm, he was later even offered an honorary doctorate in law, a notable achievement for someone who isn’t even a lawyer.

Similarly in Portugal, Karl knew that he wanted to produce wine in the Algarve, but also knew that agriculture in the Algarve makes little financial sense. Every m2 of land is exponentially more expensive than in agricultural areas, labour costs are higher (because living costs are higher), and for those reasons the agricultural infrastructure does not exist to the same extent as in the remainder of the country.

The solution that Karl came upon was wine-tourism, the additional income from wine-tourism would supplement the wine-production, allowing for a stable overall company. These days almost every Algarve winery has a strong focus on tourism, as the model has proven to be a success, but back in 2007 that was not yet the case.

Drive

Ideas and creativity are important, but without hard-work and drive they cannot be achieved. Life is often depicted as a flight of stairs, a person needs time and effort to reach the top. But Karl has always argued that a more accurate depiction for life is an escalator, but an escalator that is heading in the opposite direction. If you are inactive, you move backwards; if you walk, you stay where you are; in order to advance you need to run!

This mind-set has always driven Karl to move forwards, regardless of his achievements. The STT Group continued to thrive, and attained a completely new level, which allowed the group to bring in experts and specialists from all over the world, such as the frequent cooperation with renowned architect Sir Norman Foster (the architect who designed The Gherkin).

Furthermore, the largest multinationals were the exclusive clients of STT, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Exxon, and partnerships were forged with huge corporate partners such as British Petroleum, running together the first modern petrol station chain in Moscow, a project which Karl had already started in the early 90’s.

Even once the STT Group was established and thriving, the drive never stopped. The real estate developers decided to take on new challenges, even ones completely outside their own industry.

In the early 2000s this drive led Karl to becoming the managing partner of Sibir energy, a London-listed oil company, which was under significant financial and licensing problems with its oil fields in Western Siberia.

Under his guidance the company witnessed phenomenal growth, partnered with Shell in the exploration of the oil fields, culminating in a trading volume of around £2.5Bn by 2005.

The Winemaker Experience

Likewise, after having spent 10 years to successfully develop the wine-tourism concept at Quinta dos Vales, in 2017 Karl decided to launch a truly unique project. The Winemaker Experience is not just the combination of tourism and agriculture, it’s the integration of the two elements.

The project allows wine-lovers to authentically launch their own private wine production, with the experienced wine team of Quinta dos Vales supporting the entire process, to the degree that the client wishes.

What sets this project apart is its focus on authenticity, each participant genuinely takes their own decisions and consequences. As the first project of its kind world-wide it required an immense amount of work to establish, but that did not stop Karl. The fact that he needed to innovate was never a doubt in Karl’s mind, he remembers the ever-moving escalator, and works against it.

Don’t reinvent the wheel

As much as creativity and alternative thinking is valued, it always needs to be balanced with traditional thinking. Being observant and learning from other’s successes, other’s failures, even those from history, is an important skill for any entrepreneur.

Karl’s career started in the corporate banking world in Germany, at a time when bank managers were still able and required to make decisions on which companies they believed in and which they did not.

One of the biggest lessons he learned during those years is the importance of an economy which allows for upwards mobility, he himself being a great example of this, as the first member of his family to ever attend university and the first to work outside of their home-country.
Ease of upwards mobility within an economy is every government’s aim, as this attracts the best and brightest people to that economy.

In this context, Karl’s experience in Germany made him realise just how crucial small and medium sized companies are towards providing upwards mobility, because they allow driven entrepreneurs to work towards a goal and be personally responsible for either their successes or failures.

SMEs are often called the backbone of any stable economy, and this is a sentiment Karl well and truly agrees with, which is shown by the fact that during these past 17 years, Karl has heavily invested into the Portuguese economy, investment which have been targeted exclusively at SMEs.

He holds shareholdings in companies in a wide range of different industries across the country, be they stone-processing, print media, or even construction. In each of these companies Karl left the management in place, and limited his role to providing guidance and strategic advice.

Collaboration

The State is usually the most important influencer on any industry, but this influence is not a one-way street. The longer Karl spent working in Russia, the stronger his relationship with the Moscow government grew.

This in turn introduced him to the other individuals in a similar situation to him, who had access to such influential decision-makers, and it was in these circles where Karl witnessed first-hand both the positive as well as the negative influence that the private sector can have on public policy-making.

Unsurprisingly to our readers, he witnessed far more of the later, how influential individuals followed purely selfish goals and were able to enforce their wishes on a public scale.

But he also witnessed and participated in positive influences, such as the experience of drafting Russia’s real estate law in a combined effort between private and public sector, towards a mutual goal.

These life-lessons prepared Karl for his involvement with Portuguese politics. The most notable of which was the campaign “Deixem nos respirar”, in which he spearheaded a movement which made tangible suggestions of how and why several counter-productive bureaucratic measures should be eliminated.

The key aims of this campaign were:
(1) Not to criticise the government, rather to make specific and tangible proposals of what should be done, how this could be implemented, and the expected consequences of these actions for the national economy;
(2) to ensure that suggested measures should not benefit one company, or even one industry; instead these were structural changes that simply aimed to eliminate inefficiencies that harmed all stakeholders in the national economy, thereby benefiting all.

The next challenge

Now, for the first time in 17 years, Quinta dos Vales is no longer Karl’s primary professional focus, and Karl is in a position to look back over what he was able to achieve. In his own words: “I have been very fortunate to live my dream. I want to express my sincere thanks to the local community, to the artists who have worked with me, to our clients, and most importantly to the team of Quinta dos Vales, without their support none of this would have been possible!”

However, just because this chapter has come to an end, it is not the end of the story. Standing still is not in the nature of a man as driven as Karl is, who always has the escalator in his mind, and will surely find his next challenge soon. Now his aim will be to combine the lessons he learned in the past, together with the lessons he has learnt over the last 17 years working in Portugal.

Whatever goal or project Karl next sets his mind to, we can be assured that he will take an interesting route to achieve it. As of yet this next phase is not defined, but once it is we will be sure to report on it.

The future of Quinta dos Vales

Likewise, it will be fascinating to watch these next steps for Quinta dos Vales, as it continues to grow & develop from here onwards. This is now a task for the new owner and CEO, João Cascão, whose background lies in finance and tourism, primarily in the Algarve. It will be fascinating to see how João’s past experiences factor into the direction he takes the company next. He will be supported in this journey by the capable and long-established team at the wine estate. Let us raise our glasses and wish them all the best for the future!