| Resumo: | Rural regions are reinventing themselves as consumption places. Tourism appears as a diversification economic activity, used to overcome the demographic and economic constrains these regions face. This strategy is expected to be more effective if the tourism type to be developed is connected to an economic activity currently taking place in the region. In the case of wine regions, wine tourism appears naturally, associated with the wine culture these regions already celebrate. The case of Alentejo, more than conventual wine production, it presents a winemaking method, named Talha wine, which dates to the Roman era. This is the main subject under analysis in the present study. The goal is to assess if this wine has the potential to differentiate Alentejo from other wine tourism destinations. To accomplish the proposed goal, both primary and secondary data were collected. Regarding the literature review, a funnel type of research was performed, from the most general tourism led economic development theories to the contextualization of the region and the product. Primary data was collected through interviews with producers, touristic operators and different public entities. Further on, the qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti aided in the insights’ extraction from the interviews’ transcripts. The combination of both data types collected allowed to identify the unexplored potential of Talha wine in both wine and cultural tourism in the territory. Nonetheless, and primarily due to its production limitation, this product is seen as a valuable complement but not a main vehicle for the touristic activity of Alentejo.
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