Manuel Joaquim Canhão (1958 – 1976)
Short profile
• Adega Cooperativa de Borba’s second President.
• Profession: Farmer.
• Owner of several vineyards and olive groves in Borba. He also had a wine cellar, an olive oil press, and an alembic.
• One of the members of Grémio da Lavoura de Borba.
• He was elected as Adega de Borba President in 1958 after a change required by the leadership (the remaining elements of the Board remained).
Main events during his mandate
• In the 1958/59 harvests, there were 107 associates, of whom only 57 had their own grapes. The production capacity was insufficient for a better response to the market.
• On December 27th (1959), during the General Assembly, the President decided to purchase a truck for distribution, in order to reduce the deliveries’ time and to increase the sale price of the wine carboy. At that time, wine was only sold in a bottle or in bulk.
• The wine sales point was based in the Grémio da Lavoura building, where the administrative work took place.
• In this phase, wine was mostly sold in 5L carboys to taverns in Borba and nearby towns. It took about 3 years to start selling 12 1L glass bottles in wooden crates.
• Adega Cooperativa de Borba won the first prize for the best red wine by Junta Nacional do Vinho with the 1958/1959 harvest.
From the 60’s…
• Different investments were made in the winery, such as the expansion of the tanks and new presses, to increase the winemaking and fermentation capacities.
• Due to a solid distribution structure, it was easy to find the wines from Adega Cooperativa de Borba in Lisbon.
• Adega Cooperativa de Borba got new awards from Junta Nacional do Vinho: 2nd prize for the best white wine (1963 harvest); 1st prize for the best red wine (1964 harvest); 3rd prize for the best red wine (1966 harvest).
• In the late 60’s, the first tractors began to appear but it didn’t change the way the grapes were transported until that moment (inside “tinos”). Besides, at that time, carts were still very used to transport the grapes.
• Adega Cooperativa de Borba had, in this period, 20 elements.
