The Origins of the Port Wine Trade
From the vineyards of the Douro to the dinner tables of the world
Grape Gathering - João Paulo
The earliest English merchants to begin trading with Portugal shipped cloth and cotton to Lisbon and Porto and returned home with wine, fruit, sugar, salt, cork, honey and spices. Most of this wine was grown in the Minho country and bottled at Viana do Castelo and Porto.
As the amount of trade between the two countries increased during the 17th century a number of British firms began establishing bases in Porto and Viana do Castelo. The Portuguese love of dried salt cod led to large amounts of the fish being brought down from Newfoundland and exchanged for the wines.
The British trading families began making permanent homes in Porto and began to take a greater interest in the wines they were exporting, traveling into the Douro region to see for themselves the methods used for wine growing.
The Douro vineyards lie some 100km upstream from Porto, sheltered from the winds of the Atlantic by vast mountain ranges. This region experiences dramatic shifts in temperature from extreme heat in the summer to freezing cold in the winter, with the dry soil producing very light yields per vine. However, it is this unique climate that provides necessary conditions for producing such fine wines.
The vines are grown in terraces, with different grapes being grown at different heights. This use of a wide range of grape varieties is very different from the normal situation of famous wine regions. Even today there are over 150 different varieties of grapes grown within the demarcated region.
The Douro - José Manuel
There exist various tales explaining the origins of the fortified port wine that we know of today. It is often claimed that wine shippers in Portugal started adding brandy to the wines in order to stabilize them during the long voyage. However, others claim that brandy had long been added to the wines for the domestic market in Portugal simply to increase their potency.
Once the English trading companies began to take a greater interest in the actual process of grape growing and wine making they began experimenting with new methods of fermenting, fortifying and maturing. The port wine traders had been pressuring London for a reduction on the duties that had to be paid for the importation of Portuguese wines, and with the Methuen Treaty of 1703 they got their wish. Wines from Portugal were now cheaper in the UK than wines from France and demand increased substantially.
In 1727 the English traders grouped together to form the Factory House in Porto. The Factory was partly a private gentlemen’s club for the English (with its own Church of England chaplain) but primarily it functioned as a means of monopolizing the port trade. The shippers grouped together to increase their power over the growers, but they were seen to be overplaying their hand as they consistently demanded lower prices for the wines they purchased.
Outraged by the demands of the British the Douro farmers petitioned the Marquis de Pombal to intervene. The Marquis established the Alto Douro Wine Company, effectively nationalizing the wine growing industry. From now on the British traders had to buy from the Companhia Geral exclusively. Although the British complained bitterly this move by the Marquis led to a great improvement in the quality of the product as the Alto Douro became the first demarcated wine growing region in the world.
The British protests at home were considered trivial as Pitt focused on the Seven Years War, and Pombal ignored the entirely until he had 26 members of the Factory House executed following riots in Porto. Overtime the Companhia Geral began to accommodate the British shippers, eventually allowing the wealthiest to become members.
By the 1770´s the shipping associations has settled into a comfortable and wealthy relationship with their Portuguese neighbours and in 1786 the Factory House was rebuilt on what was then the Rua Nova dos Ingleses (The New Street of the English). The Factory House and can be visited today, although the name of the street is now Rua do Infante Dom Henrique in Porto, named in memory of Porto´s most famous king and initiator of the Discoveries.
The 19th century was a period of great prosperity for the port labels with many of the original trading houses remaining active to this day.