Portugal

Bento Amaral

Bento was Director of Technical Services and Certification at the Institute of Douro and Port Wines (IVDP) until 2022, as well as continuing to work as a Professor of Wine Tasting for post-graduate Oenology and Wine Marketing courses at the Escola Superior de Biotecnologia de Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Due to an unfortunate sailing accident in 1994, Bento is a quadriplegic. This, however, has done nothing to dim his happiness or his enthusiasm for life. In 2005, Bento was crowned World Champion of Disabled Sailing, and went on to represent Portugal in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games. Bento is fiercely passionate about wine, and also about improving diversity and inclusion within the industry, especially regarding creating more access and opportunities for people with disabilities. To this end, in 2022 Bento founded Humanwinety with three colleagues, an organisation which we are delighted to support as one of our grantees, and that aims to empower and include individuals from minority groups within the wine and hospitality industries through innovative education.