Beer is made by brewers, wine by vintners, whisky by distillers. How strange that port should be made by shippers. But there is a perfectly good explanation. For more than three centuries, Great Britain has been an essential market for the worst and the best port wine, and from an early date, British wine shippers involved themselves in production as well as export.
The Port Wine Shippers
At first glance, it seems strange that port should be so closely associated with Britain, but the names of the port shippers tell the tale: Cockburn, Taylor, Croft, Graham, Warre, Dow . . . How did the British become so involved in the production of a fortified wine from nearly a thousand miles away?
The obvious answer is that the Brits have always had a taste for alcohol, but, until recently – and largely because of climatic considerations – made no wine of their own. But why not get involved in the French wine business? Much bigger than the Portuguese, after all, and much closer to home.
How Britain Began to Buy Port Wine
Well, it all goes back to the end of the seventeenth century, when Britain and France were at war. French wine was hard to get hold of, so an alternative was sought. And a glance at a map of Europe suggests one reason that port was able to take advantage. It is not mere coincidence that the Douro valley, the home of port, is in the north of the country, not the south. (The name port comes from the city of Oporto near the mouth of the river.)
The greatest boost to the port trade with Britain came with the Methuen Treaty of 1703. The agreement was that Portugal would not levy tax on English textiles, nor Britain on Portuguese wine. To the delight of the wine growers of the River Douro, the British began to buy port wine in serious quantities.
Quite when it was found that the addition of a brandy-like spirit made the wine more stable on the long sea journey to England is not known for certain. But the discovery was made, and soon the wine shippers were carrying the strong, sweet fortified wine we know today.
The Marquis of Pombal and the River Douro
But port became a victim of its own success. Such was the demand that all sorts of inferior products were passed off as the best port wine, and the price collapsed. Enter the Marquis of Pombal, the single most important figure in the history of port. In 1756 the Marquis demarcated the region of the Douro within which port could be grown, and instituted quality control.
After his death, exports to Great Britain received another great boost with the Napoleonic Wars. Again French wines were unavailable, and port consumption in England increased enormously.
Joseph James Forrester and the Barco Rabelo
But again, with success came corruption, as unscrupulous British wine shippers seized the opportunity to adulterate the wine in various unpleasant ways. And then they came up against the spirit of the Marquis of Pombal, embodied now in Joseph James Forrester.
A talented painter and cartographer, Forrester’s excellent maps of the Douro valley led to his being made a baron of Portugal. In the port business, he fought a bitter and ultimately successful campaign against the British wine shippers who were ruining port’s reputation in England.
It is perhaps fitting that Baron Forrester died on the River Douro. His boat – a barco rabelo of the sort used to carry port – overturned in rapids one day in May, 1861, and the story goes that his doom was sealed by the heavy gold coins in his money belt.
Dona Antonia Adelaide Ferreira
But he had served his turn, and after his death, it was a friend of his who became the most significant figure in the port business. Dona Antonia Adelaide Ferreira had been with him when he died, surviving only because her crinoline kept her afloat. Dona Antonia, whose life spanned most of the nineteenth century, broke all the rules of a patriarchal society by becoming a brilliantly successful businesswoman.
When disaster hit the River Douro with the twin plagues of oidium and phylloxera, Dona Antonia was the most significant of several major figures who were able to buy up many small vineyards. A number of today’s big wine shippers became established at this time.
So devastating was the phylloxera louse that the Douro’s vines could only be saved by grafting them onto American rootstock. Port from the tiny number of ungrafted vineyards which have survived is phenomenally expensive – though not all consider it the best port wine.
But the industry, after more than three hundred years, is still going strong. And as long as the British want to buy port wine, it should be good for many more centuries yet.
Iain Manson - A Life – of Sorts Born in 1950 of a Scottish father and a Welsh mother, Iain Manson was brought up in Scotland, and graduated ...
