Wine · Heritage

Family wine quinta, Alentejo

Forty harvests behind it, recognised wines, near-zero international sales despite the quality. The founder is in his early sixties; his daughter is a trained oenologist but the commercial structure to inherit does not exist yet.

The starting point

Family wine quinta, Alentejo

The wines win medals and respect. National distribution works through a small set of long-standing relationships, but international interest spotted in trade fairs never converts into recurring orders. There is no commercial team, no foreign-language website, no export logistics process. The founder spends his weeks on viticulture and cellar work; the rest is improvised. The daughter is ready to step up but inherits paperwork, not a system.

What BTJT brought

A multilingual brand presence with proper export-grade product photography. A B2B importer-prospecting process driven from the office, with sample shipments and follow-up cadence. A small oenotourism offering structured around private tastings and short stays at the quinta. Standard-operating procedures for export logistics. The daughter installed as commercial director with clear remit and decision rights.

Where things stand today

Recurring import relationships in two new European markets. Oenotourism turning a meaningful contribution to revenue with high margin. The daughter running the commercial side end-to-end while the founder stays on viticulture, cellar and the brand voice. A staged buyout calendar agreed for years six to ten, around the founder's planned step-down.

What this case shows

Heritage producers often plateau because of invisibility, not capacity. The right brand and commercial work multiplies the addressable market without altering the soul of the work. The succession became possible because the structure was built before the founder needed it.

If you run a heritage producer with quality the wider market never quite hears about, and a successor who needs more than a job title to take over — this is the kind of arc we'd start with.

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Composite scenario. Names, regions and figures have been altered to protect the identity of the people and businesses concerned. The dynamics described reflect engagements we work on.