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The institutionalization of several wine regions during the dictatorial government of João Franco means an understanding of both the role of the state and the national interest that contradicts the philosophy of liberalism. The political decision of creating wine regions had a number of consequences: it reorganized the main wine-producing areas, it decentralized the regulation of production and marketing to the benefice of some regions and corporate interests, and it subverted the very dynamics of the domestic market by changing the competition rules between the main producing regions. The Dão wine region was created in a context of crisis of the wine industry, but it was also made possible by the fragility of the liberal state. The lobbying power of regional elites was decisive for the institutionalization of the Dão wine region, but the success of their claims must also be understood in a context of crisis of the liberal state.