Speakers – Porto 2021

Born in a fine year for Vintage Port (1963) Adrian spent 6 years in the British Army and a similar length of time in Investment Banking before moving to Portugal in 1994 as part of the new generation of family management at Taylor’s and Fonseca Port.  He took over running the business in 1998 and has been involved in the consolidation of the Port sector as well as over seeing a move in wine tourism.

In Port wine his major contributions apart from growing the group’s strength in special category Ports was the introduction of the first ever Rosé Port in 2008 (Croft Pink), super luxury Aged Tawnies in 2010 (Taylor’s Scion) and Ready to Drink canned Ports with tonic water in 2021 (Taylor’s Chip Dry and Tonic and Croft Pink and Tonic).

However, the development of the luxury wine hotel The Yeatman in 2010 was probably the project most associated with Adrian who was involved in all aspects of its creation.  This has been eclipsed by the ambitious World of Wine that opened in July 2020 and is a new cultural center with 7 Experiences/Museums, restaurants, retail, wine bar, wine school and bean to bar chocolate factory.

The Fladgate Partnership is the holding company for all these activities and where Adrian serves as President and CEO.

Adrian created The Porto Protocol in 2018 which is a global initiative to get wineries to help tackle climate change.  He is also involved in a number of other charitable activities.

Adrian is a partner in Unlock Boutique Hotels  which operates 15 locations across Portugal.

He is married to Natasha and has three adult children.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrian-bridge-ab75343/

Wine MarCom of the association “Winemakers of North Greece”, responsible for the organization of wine tasting events, communications, media, wine tourism and the wine tourism network “Wines Roads of North Greece”.  Also, a food and wine freelance writer.

Born and residing in Rio de Janeiro, he is one of the Brazilian journalists who best knows the global reality of wines. Currently editor of GULA magazine, a publication specialising in wine and gastronomy that has been running for over 30 years, he is also an instructor of Portuguese wines in several markets – European, American and Asian.

Andrea Kaiser is a dedicated winery tourism leader with deep roots in the Niagara Region. She is an active member of her community in addition to being a working mother of two, a small business owner, an instructor at Niagara College and the Director of Marketing and Tourism at a renowned local winery. Andrea is the proud daughter of Karl co-founder and winemaker of Inniskillin Wine and recently launched her own wine in his memory.

I have worked in the Port and Douro wines industry for more than 33 years. Currently I am Chief Operating Officer of Symington Family Estates, Vinhos, S.A, established in 1882 and still a family owned business, now in its fifth generation. I am also president of the Liga dos Amigos do Douro Património Mundial, a not for profit organization created in 2022 with the aim to protect and promote the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Alto Douro Vinhateiro.

I’m current a PhD Researcher in Wine Business @ ISCTE - IUL, in 2018, as the first outcome of my research I create a start up - Alle Wine - to bridge the wine tourist and wine producer connection. I hold a Biology bachelor and MBA from Un Univ. Católica | Univ. Nova | MIT

Carlos Brito is professor of marketing at the University of Porto, president of the Observatory of Port Wine, vice-president of the Portuguese Management Association, board member of APCER Brazil, member of the Superior Council of Futebol Clube do Porto, member of the strategic board of Turismo do Porto e Norte, member of the advisory boards of several organisations such as COTEC Portugal and SEDES.

From 2011 to 2018 he was Pro-Rector of the University of Porto for the area of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Director of UPTEC - Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto. From 2019 to 2021 he was Vice-Rector of Portucalense University for the area of Research.
Carlos Brito is graduated in Economics (University of Porto), MBA (NOVA University) and PhD in Marketing (Lancaster University, UK). He has complimentary education in the United States with the programmes Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Babson College (Boston) and the Education Leadership at Case Western University (Cleveland).

Federico, the youngest of the family, son of Bruno, was born in 1977.

After the high school, he chose the University Diploma Course in Business Administration and while continuing his studies, he already entered the heart of his profession, beginning to deal with Ceretto's commercial management and especially with foreign markets, collaborating mainly with importers, and also following the sales network in Italy, supporting agents in their visits to customers.

Dynamic, sociable and a great wine lover, he immediately invested a lot of time and dedication in the search for new export markets, exploring new countries that proved to be very interesting for market development.

With the new company structure defined at the beginning of 2019, Federico is the CEO of Aziende Vitivinicole Ceretto.

Felicity Carter is editor-in-chief of Meininger’s Wine Business International, the world’s only global, English language wine business magazine. Published in Germany, it has subscribers in more than 40 countries. Felicity is a regular speaker at international wine events from ProWein to Wine2Wine, and she has spoken on wine tourism at a number of international conferences, including in South Africa and Portugal. A wine judge, Felicity has judged in Portugal, Germany, Bordeaux, Brussels and Georgia, and in 2015 formed part of the ‘empowerment of women in wine’ panel for Wines of Argentina. She is an international judge of the Australian Gourmet Traveller Wine Wine List of the Year, and the China Wine List of the Year, and has been the international judge of the nationally televised German Wine Queen finals.

Guy Haran is a wine tourism expert and the CEO of Vinspiration - a wine tourism company focusing on the leading wine regions around the world. Through Vinspiration, he consults for wineries and wine regions in Israel, improving wine tourism and promoting wine and culinary tourism to the country.

He is the author of "Wine Journey - An Israeli Adventure", a bestselling guide book that presents Israeli wineries and the current local wine scene (published 2021).

Guy is also the founder of the leading Hebrew podcast: "Wine is Basic" which was established in 2017. He teaches in several wine schools, including the Israeli franchise of WSET, and is a former Sommelier, having worked for some of the leading restaurants in Israel.

Content Director of Essência do Vinho, is also a columnist, editor and taster of Revista de Vinhos, reporter and voice of the weekly TV show “A Essência”, broadcast on RTP3 and RTP Internacional. Journalist, author of the podcast “Vinho – Palavra a Palavra”, he has also been an instructor on Portuguese wines in different events.

Kristine Mansuy founder of Kikico-Wine Events ( Awarded Best Wine Event Planner and Educator of Quebec, Travel & Tourism Awards 2021, By Lux Life Magazine), is a well-known Quebec sommelier and a graduate of the Quebec Institute of Tourism and Hospitality (ITHQ).

Involved in the industry for over 15 years, Kristine is invited to share her expertise at several renowned establishments in Canada such as Fairmont Hotels, Le Germain Montreal and Manoir Hovey Relais & Château. She also leaves her mark in the commercial trade, notably as a brand ambassador for Pol Roger Champagne and as a wine columnist and educator for different media companies. Passionate about artisan winemakers, her mission is to showcase the know-how of local producers while providing exceptional moments for her clients.

Majoring in art history and being enthusiastic traveler, Lilith combined these two of her passions and started career in tourism 12 years ago. She co-operates in the inbound tourism department of one of the oldest and major travel companies in Armenia, GoArmenia powered by Visa Concord.

Having an opportunity and platform to invest in developing tourism in Armenia with her personal touch, Lilith incorporated her love of wine and its industry to travel section in Armenia, and with the help of GoArmenia, Visa Concord invested in the development of Wine tourism in the country, becoming a wine tourism expert.

Lilith is a regular attendee of many travel events all around the world representing the big and small wineries, wine producers of Armenia. She along with her team work to bring attention to the reputation and competitiveness of country’s winemaking and its unique centuries old traditions. Main goal being to promote Armenia's attractiveness as a travel destination and winemaking country.

Together with Armenia Wine and many other leading wine producers, she works on developing the local viticulture as a guarantee of high-quality wine.

Raquel Rodrigues is Product and Market Manager at Porto and North of Portugal Tourism Board.

Her background work sets in structuring and developing tourism resources and their subsequent promotion to domestic and foreign markets, in the two core segments Leisure and M&I.

This extensive work is crucial to Porto and North of Portugal Tourism, given the diversity of its territories and the opportunity to develop and promote new tourism products. It also aligns with the destination’s strategic goals, to promote territorial cohesion and to reduce seasonality to name a phew, and towards a sustainable tourism development of its territories.

Sinisa Curavic is a passionate wine lover, life lover and a wine tourism aficionado. He is sharing the passion and love for wine, one grape at a time. Especially when it comes to wine from the appellations of Catalonia and particularly from the Priorat. He is a member of the #winelover community and the Swedish wine club Munskänkarna with 24.000 members worldwide. In 2012 he formed the Barcelona chapter and he is now educator for the chapter, with its 47 members. Wine taster, blogger, connecting wine producers with importers and taking wine lovers for wine tours! In October 2015 he took part in the Swedish championship in Spanish wine knowledge, finishing second! He was educated by the regulatory body of the DOQ Priorat, for tour guides of the Priorat. He knows most of the cellars and wine makers of that region and lobbied for quite some time to make Priorat the wine region of the year for the Swedish wine club Munskänkarna. Priorat together with Montsant was officially declared “Wine region of the year 2016” by Munskänkarna. Wine tours arranged by Sinisa, include all the winemaking regions of Spain, but also the Douro region of Portugal, the south of France and Croatia! During the past 11 years, Sinisa has been producing bespoke, professional and epicurean experiences in these parts of the world, for the discerning wine travelers. As the passion for Vermouth was awakened in 2018, discovering the world of vermouth in the small village of Brafim, where Sinisa now lives, he started working as commercial coordinator for the Vermouth experiences at Casa Vermouth Padro! Sinisa did the Mongol Rally in 2016. The Rally itself is a crazy event, starting in London and ending in Ulan Ude in Siberia, passing thorough Mongolia and before that some 26 more countries. He did this race for charity but also for the adventure and for wine, together with a sommelier friend from Sweden, they stopped in all the wine producing countries on the way, to visit cellars and taste wine, the ultimate wine tour! Some of the wine producing countries that they visited included Spain, France, England, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia. And did you know they make some quite good wine in Kyrgyzstan? Any and all questions you might have will be answered as soon as he is able to put the wine glass down.

Dr. Tamás Várhelyi. As a manager of a tourism knowledge centre and a college professor Dr. Tamás Várhelyi is the first Hungarian invited presenter in the annual invitational international health tourism (spa and wellness) world summit.  He is qualified as an informatics professional, physician, and economist, along with being a wine gastronomy manager and internationally qualified and acclaimed management consultant (CMC). He holds a PhD in the field of regional development and tourism.

As a senior manager at KPMG he compiled the health tourism marketing strategy of Hungary and developed the plans for the remodelling of the Héviz Lake Spa. Subsequently, he functioned as the director of innovation in Eszterházy Károly College focusing on wine-based product development in Eger and Sárospatak. In addition to holding lectures in Eger he fulfilled guest professor assignments in wine tourism in Barcelona and Florence. He has authored several professional volumes including a textbook on wine tourism. Having visited over 130 countries he has become fully familiar with the respective business, wellness, and wine consumption cultures.