The world wine market is currently characterized by two principal wine suppliers: the European and the New World. Countries such as France, Italy, Spain and Portugal have witnessed a tremendous growth in the New World wine-makers (Australia, Chile, South Africa, etc.). Portugal is one of the Old World countries that presents several natural and technical constraints, which might currently be resulting in modest performance in terms of its position in the global wine market, competitiveness and dynamics required to overcome difficulties. The main objective of this study is to analyse the Portuguese performance for competing in external markets and its evolution from 1996 to 2003. This study is based on indices such as the trade intensity index, revealed comparative advantage, auto-sufficiency and market share relation ratios.