NELAS, THE HEART OF THE DÃO, WILL ALSO BE THE HEART OF THE NATIONAL WINE TOURISM AWARD 2025

OnMay 30th, starting at 6pm, Quinta do Castelo in Nelas will host the National Wine Tourism Award 2025. An event organised by the Portuguese Wine Tourism Association (APENO) that rewards the best companies and professionals in the sector. Fifteen categories are up for vote.

After Lisbon, the Alentejo and Santarém, the APENO/Ageas Seguros National Wine Tourism Award 2025 will now take place in the municipality of Nelas, in the heart of the Dão region. On 30 May, starting at 6pm, Quinta do Castelo will host the ceremony that rewards the best projects, companies and professionals that stood out in the wine tourism sector in 2024.

With Ageas Seguros as its main sponsor, the National Wine Tourism Award is also sponsored by

Câmara Municipal de Nelas, Entidade Regional Turismo do Centro de Portugal, Comissão Vitivinícola Regional (CVR) do Dão, as well as recognised companies such as Grupo Amorim, Schott Zwiesel; Alug’Aqui, Gifts4Wine, Viagens Abreu and MCoutinho. Finally, it also has the institutional support of the Vine and Wine Institute.

‘We are delighted to announce that the fourth edition of the National Wine Tourism Award will be held in Nelas, in the heart of the Dão. Decentralising and showcasing the potential of all national regions has always been APENO’s main objective. This time, it’s up to the Dão region to host the festival that honours the best of national wine tourism,’ says APENO President Maria João de Almeida. ‘As usual in previous years, this year we also promise an unmissable festival that is in keeping with a sector that is growing more and more. Expect lots of news and surprises at a party that we believe will remain in everyone’s memory,’ she said.

Ageas Seguros has always been with APENO and reaffirms its enthusiasm for the sector by supporting another edition of this National Wine Tourism Award. Increasingly asserting itself as the insurer of this business area, last year AGEAS presented an exclusive product for wine tourism companies. ‘Our strategy continues to be based on prevention and safety, and it is in this sense that we have introduced PAR (Prevention and Risk Analysis) to APENO members, a free service that assesses the risks of companies, as well as their possible consequences, acting to prevent them,’ explains Gustavo Barreto, Member of the Executive Committee of the Ageas Portugal Group.

Known for its wines of excellence and its strong commitment to wine tourism, Nelas is known as the heart of the Dão region. Flanked by the Mondego and Dão rivers, along a mountainous landscape, surrounded by the Serra do Caramulo and Serra da Estrela, it is home to sublime gastronomy, harmonised with very elegant wines, born from the best terroirs. It is in this setting, more precisely at Quinta do Castelo, that the fourth edition of the National Wine Tourism Award will be held. On a farm overlooking the Dão valley, guests will have the opportunity to sample reinvented local gastronomy, where wines and cheeses are the protagonists. ‘It is with great pleasure that we welcome to our municipality an award of such importance for wine tourism, a sector that has gained absolute prominence in our region. Aware of the potential of wine tourism in our municipality, for 34 years we have been organising the oldest wine fair in the country, the Dão Wine Fair, the biggest celebration of the wine-growing culture of the Dão Demarcated Region and of Portugal. It is also in this municipality that we host the CEVD – Centro de Estudos Vitivinícolas do Dão (Dão Wine Studies Centre), the largest institution for research, investigation and the transmission of knowledge to all Dão producers and winemakers.

This year, we’ve added the National Wine Tourism Award to the Fair, thus signalling the importance that wine tourism has for our municipality. If Nelas is the heart of Dão wines, it is now also the heart of national wine tourism,’ says Joaquim Amaral, mayor of Nelas.

In the words of Anabela Freitas, vice-president of the institution, the Regional Tourism Authority of the Centre of Portugal reinforces the prominent role that wine tourism plays throughout the region. ‘Adding the excitement of a festival like this to the Dão wine-growing landscape is a major factor in attracting more and more wine and tourism lovers to our region. The National Wine Tourism Award will be a key event to further energise the Dão region in terms of wine tourism.’

The CVR do Dão, which is promoting the welcome drink for the National Wine Tourism Award, also emphasises the importance of this event in the region as an important strategy for attracting new audiences. ‘By promoting the region through initiatives like this, we are once again reinforcing the image of the Dão as a destination of excellence for wine lovers and wine tourism, consolidating its position on the national and international wine scene, where Dão wines have been increasingly in demand and have received notable recognition,’ says the president of the Dão CVR, Arlindo Cunha.

Fifteen categories honoured

The APENO / Ageas Seguros 2025 National Wine Tourism Award will honour Portuguese businesses/projects that have distinguished themselves as success stories, in the following fifteen categories: Best Wine Tourism in Portugal; Best Professional; Best Stay; Best Restaurant; Best Chef; Best Sommelier; Best Tasting Room; Best Tourist Company; Best Inclusive Project; Best Sustainable Project; Best Shop; Best Art and Culture; Best Innovation and Culture; Best Hospitality and Best Urban Wine Tourism.

See the categories and judges here: https://enoturismodeportugal.pt/premio-nacional-de-enoturismo-2025/

Voting is carried out online and will take place in May via a digital platform specially designed for the purpose, with each juror simply voting in each of the existing categories.

The panel of more than 250 judges includes recognised wine and tourism journalists, official wine and tourism bodies (Regional Wine Commissions and Regional Tourism Entities), chefs and sommeliers, and even APENO members (official bodies will vote for different regions from their own, and professionals from the sector and members for people and projects from other regions). The nominees and winners will be announced during the event in Nelas.

It should be remembered that APENO was founded in February 2021 with the aim of organising and supporting the promotion of wine tourism, a sector with no official definition, no legislation and no figures; and that since its creation it has worked to alert the government to this need. Its already vast membership includes some of the largest wine producing companies (which already account for more than 80% of national production), travel and tourist agencies, hotels and wine restaurants. As a non-profit business association, it has the support of a number of companies that have believed in its potential from the outset.