Quinta dos Carvalhais aimed to create much more than a wine club. The challenge was to build a lasting relationship between consumers, the brand, and the territory, transforming the wine experience into an emotional connection to the people, traditions, and authenticity of the Dão region. The goal was to engage younger audiences, strengthen the brand's positioning, and explore a community model that values not only the wines but also the gastronomy, craftsmanship, local producers, and all the stories that are part of the estate's identity.
To address this challenge, Sogrape invited Everythink to lead the first phase of the project, integrated into the "Capture Value" program and focused on Organizational Alignment and Design Research. The work involved interviews with employees, partners, and people connected to Quinta dos Carvalhais, allowing for the identification of perceptions, opportunities, and ambitions for the future club. In parallel, an in-depth benchmark of wine clubs and other communities, both inside and outside the wine sector, was developed, analyzing trends, subscription models, event formats, experiences, and best practices that fueled a bank of ideas for the following phases.
The research identified clear opportunities to strengthen the connection between consumers, the brand, and the territory. Highlights included the potential of wine tourism, involving the estate's people as protagonists of the experience, valuing regional gastronomy, and creating unique moments capable of turning the purchase of a bottle into a story to remember and share. Ideas such as outdoor tastings, experiences with winemakers, harvest fairs, seasonal events, and narratives centered on people and the territory emerged as differentiating elements for a new direct-to-consumer relationship model.
Although this phase did not define final solutions, it established a solid strategic vision for a club based on authenticity, proximity, and experience. The project highlighted the strong symbolic potential of Quinta dos Carvalhais and laid the foundations for the subsequent stages of ideation, prototyping, and implementation, with the ambition of creating a replicable model for other Sogrape brands and a new way of bringing consumers, territory, and wine culture closer together.
