Feeling like a rock star!

I’m incredibly happy to have been awarded as Wine Personality of the Year in Portugal by the DN newspaper and I would like to take this amazing opportunity to say a few things.

As I said previously it makes me very proud to see the work that me and my team (André Cid and Emídio Santos) have been doing during the last 3 years recognized by a national newspaper. So, what have we been doing ?

Adegga
Adegga is the project that started everything. 3 years ago I quit my day job at SAPO and decided to work full-time on this project.

Adegga (Twitter) is an online wine community where anyone can track the wines that are drinking (to help remember later) and share that experience with other people.
Adegga now has over 100.000 unique visitors every month and includes over 10.000 tasting notes from its members. Together consumers are changing the wine world by creating a new wine recommendation era where trust and conversation are more important than status.
Adegga is now a platform with a soon be released API and Mobile application for the IPhone & Android.
Wine producers can use Adegga to talk about their wines, present their winery or launch a new wine. Cortes de Cima and Quevedo are two of wine producers already doing it.

AVIN, an ISBN for Wine

The AVIN (Twitter) is a unique identifier for each wine. Think of it as an ISBN for Wine.
Like with books, every wine should have a unique number. This will help consumers get more information out of each bottle of wine and help them make smarter decisions.
2 years ago we created the concept of Dynamic Wine Labels allowing anyone with a camera-enabled mobile phone to read the label and access wine reviews, wine prices and a lot more information from anywhere.
Cortes de Cima, Quevedo, O’Vineyards were the first to use the AVIN.
Now, over 1 million wine labels have been printed with a Dynamic Wine Label including an AVIN and a QRCode
Wineries interested in getting an AVIN for their wines should contact us.

What else?
The awarded is largely based on the work done on those 2 projects but I gave another wine related project a lot of time in 2009. Together with the star couple Gabriella and Ryan Opaz and shirt-proud Robert McIntosh I helped bring the European Wine Bloggers conference to Portugal. The conference was a major success, gathering over 160 people including wine producers, wine bloggers and wine writers from around the World. It brought new media education and attention to the Portuguese wine industry.

Portugal *is* changing
Being awarded by a respected national newspaper is the kind of exposure that should happen more often in Portugal. Some awards should exist to promote and create public awareness of great work done by young people who are shaping the future and not to award the same-old-people who are already well know and awarded. Thanks to Aníbal Coutinho for his courage in doing this and helping change this mentality.

Aníbal wrote something powerful to finish the article and I definitely think ever

If you’re a wine producer or professional in the wine area and you’ve haven’t understood why I gave André Ribeirinho the award, make sure you’re not turning your back to the future of your business.

Thank you
I would also like to thank everyone who has been supporting me and my projects on Twitter, Facebook and all around the World. You guys make it possible!

Thanks Henriette from inspiring me for that title!

January 31, 2010 | Tags: adegga, avin, awards, entrepreneurship

comments

17 Responses to “Feeling like a rock star!”

Gustavo Pimenta on January 31st, 2010

Congrats, you deserve it!
Justin Roberts on January 31st, 2010

Big congratulations André! Pls pass on to the others at Adegga also, the other André and Emidio. Hope to catch up with you guys soon!
Bruno Pedro on January 31st, 2010

WOW! Huge congratulations!

You were already a rock star before, you just didn’ t know it

PS: here’s the link to the article (in portuguese) http://dn.sapo.pt/revistas/ns/interior.aspx?content_id=1481387
ricardo on January 31st, 2010

Parabéns!
Mais do que merecido pelo trabalho e pela inspiração!
Felipe Ávila da Costa on January 31st, 2010

Congratulations André

It is just the beginning =)
Gabriella Opaz on January 31st, 2010

Andre, we couldn’t be more proud to hear of your amazing feat! And to have Portugal recognize the scope and breadth of your project only speaks volumes of how advanced Portugal is in their way of thinking. You have worked so hard to make this a reality, and we’ll keep supporting you every step of the way.
Nuno Loureiro on January 31st, 2010

Congrats for the award! Well done.

Now make our wine famous all over the world.

I’m sick of being in other countries and to be difficult to find portuguese wine and for it to be not well known. We all know we have great great wine, among the best in the world. Our wine just needs to be known and I guess IT is a huge channel to promote it. You’re a mean to change the producer’s mentality to promote better their wines internationally. With the award, it comes more responsibility, and we trust you to achieve that goal.
Carrie Jorgensen on January 31st, 2010

Congrats Andre! DN Wine Personality of the Year says it all! How nice to be recognized by the Portuguese wine establishment for what you and Adegga are doing for the wine world! Keep those innovating ideas coming!
Pedro Couto e Santos on January 31st, 2010

This is nothing you didn’t deserve, you do inspiring work and not just for wine lovers. Congratulations
Ryan O'Connell on February 1st, 2010

Congratulations! Glad to ride your coat tails a little bit. This year Portugal recognizes you. Next year EUROPE. Think you can hit Global Wine Personality of the year by 2012?
João Pedro Gonçalves on February 1st, 2010

Congrats André, for making us all proud of you!
Rui Campos on February 1st, 2010

Congrats, André!

It is really inspiring to see someone from this little corner by the sea that pursues his dream having such a success!!

I would love to see a post from you doing a recap of the past 3 years, since you decided that “Safe is risky” and how you were able to manage things (even how to fund yourself and your expenses - Were you able to get some sort of salary from Adegga at any time during these 3 years?
That post, I believe, would definitely inspire others to pursue their dreams and follow their instincts without fear to leave the “comfort zones”.

Keep innovating!

Cheers,
Rui
Ricardo Nunes on February 1st, 2010

Well done, Gromit!
Um abraço
Andre on February 2nd, 2010

Rui,
I’ve been wanting to make a post like that for a while as there’s so much to tell about this whole (ad)venture.
I’ll eventually do it (probably this year). As soon as I find a little bit of inspiration myself to write it.

Thanks for the kind words of support!
André
Moses on February 2nd, 2010

Sooooooooooooooooooooo well deserved “Mr. Wine Personality of the Year”!!!! very proud of you and the team. Keep up the great work and wish you continued success as Adegga keeps on innovating and reaching wine lovers around the world.
Salgado on February 2nd, 2010

Simply amazing.
Knowing your work, I´m really not surprised.
Cortes de Cima » Blog Archive » Adegga - Facebook for Wine Buffs on February 18th, 2010

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