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Lua Cheia - Saven

The best Wines of Portugal

To recount the story of Lua Cheia-Saven one must analyse the personalities of Manuel Dias, the businessman and Francisco Baptista, the winemaker. Everything started in reverse. Initially it started with the market products, then the wine, the wine cellars and finally the grapes. And that was how the Lua Cheia em Vinhas Velhas was created. Now renamed Lua Cheia-Saven it joined winemaker Francisco Baptista with the business entrepreneur Manuel Dias in 2009. It led them on a path through various regions of Portugal. They started with the notion of “making wine in reverse”. Targeting the client market or more precisely, the perception Manuel Dias had of the market given his accumulated experience with his Saven market business. (Saven’s netting about 12 Million Euros over a 30 year history in wine and food products exportation). In reality, it was Manuel Dias who would say “I like to create businesses in reverse and with no funding.” So he was clearly the visionary behind the Lua Cheia em Vinhas Velhas brand; now known as Lua Cheia-Saven. It was his market know-how along with Francisco Baptista’s knowledge of the Douro that created the wines the national and international markets requested. It is the ideal quality to price ration that’s desired. The initial production started with the purchase of Quinta do Bronze, located in Vale Mendiz, Pinhão, Portugal. In 2010, work began on an investment in a winery in Martim, Murça, and today, at the sub-regions of Moncão and Melgaço, Vinho Verde region, Lua Cheia-Saven owns vineyards in Quinta da Carvalheira and Barqueira. It also owns a winery in Monção and a production unit in the Industrial Zone of Alijó, Douro. Recently the portfolio of the company also includes Alentejo and Dão wines. Without the relentless vision of Manuel Dias’s inverse strategy and Francisco Baptista’s singular winemaking knowledge, their wines would never have attained the quality and perfection that characterizes them. The administrative headquarters of Lua Cheia-Saven are in the Saven building in Ílhavo, which has historically been a codfish industry landmark. It was because of this special connection that Lua Cheia has a unique wine in its portfolio. Poseidon wine was an experiment with the officers Club of the Portuguese Merchant Marines. The Poseidon name was inspired by the ancient mythical sea god. The wine is stored on a codfish fishing vessel land and travels on the high seas for months. It travels from Portugal to the Grand Banks of Nova Scotia. After its journey each bottle is numbered and certified by the captain and crew. The Poseidon wine returns with a significant uniqueness and maturity.

Ano 1823

Our goal is to produce and distribute the wines that best reflect the unique qualities of the various Portuguese regions.

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Adega de Monção

Our initial investment, in the Monção and Melgaço region, took place in 2012 in a winery and two wine estates: Quinta da Carvalheira and Barqueira. It’s here, the birthplace of Alvarinho, where we produce our labels Nostalgia and Maria Papoila wines. Later another investment was made in the Vinho Verde region, where grape varietals such as Loureiro, Alvarinho and Sauvignon Blanc were planted. These plantings gave birth to our Maria Bonita and Maria Papoila wines.

Quinta do Bronze

This amazing and iconic Lua Cheia property dates back to 1823. It is made up of 16 hectares and situated near the village of Vilarinho de Cotas, Alijó. Located in one of the best wine -producing zones of the Douro Valley. At Quinta Do Bronze you experience a dizzyingly gorgeous panoramic view of the right bank of the Pinhão River. It’s here where the red wine, Quinta Do Bronze, was born; a full- bodied wine, rich in aroma.

Founder

Manuel Dias

The entrepreneur Manuel Dias was born on December 11, 1951 and, soon he reconciled his studies with work at his father´s company, an industry in the food sector. At the age of 17 entered the air force, served in the Portuguese former colonies, and, when he returned joined his father once again in the activity he was developing. At the same time, he established the company “SUPER PEÇAS”, by creating a distribution chain of mechanical parts, company which he discarded a few years later, to start a new and innovative project in the tools area - “SDS, LDA”. In 1988, during the management of the family business “SOCIEDADE DE PADARIAS BEIRA MAR”, he discovered the so-called “mercado da saudade”(a market specialized in trading typical Portuguese products for its communities living abroad) and formed “SAVEN - SOCIEDADE ABSTECEDORA DE NAVIOS AVEIRENSE, LDA”, an instrument for the global supply of Portuguese products. This experience lead him to discover the world of wines and to realize that there was an opportunity in the global market for Portuguese wines, having, in 2009, with the Winemaker Francisco Baptista, created “LUA CHEIA EM VINHAS VELHAS, LDA ”, whose motto was, and still is, to produce wines of excellent quality at a fair price for the consumer, with which he conquered foreign markets and, subsequently, also the Portuguese market. The businessman Manuel Dias was a “visionary” who imprinted in all the projects he developed, something innovative, which allowed him to always be at the forefront of the developed activities, which were many. After his passing away on 10/12/2019, he left a legacy in the world of wine and vine that has been preserved and developed by his successors.

Manager

Lara Dias

The Future in Family

Received her law degree from Universidad Moderna do Porto in 1999. Since 2000, she has practiced law in Aveiro. In 2005 she joined the Board of Directors of Saven, S.A. which she now chairs.

Winemaker, Managing Partner

Francisco Baptista

Passion and Experience

He graduated in Agri-food engineering in 1994, and in 1999 he also completed a degree in Oenology from the University of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro. Since 1994 he has worked as a winemaker with several national producers such as Sogrape, Quinta da Perdiz, Quinta da Vila.