Port anD the Douro 89In spite of the social changes that have taken place in Portugal since the revolution of
1974–1975, the larger Douro quintas are still resolutely hierarchical. The patrão (owner)
and his family and guests will eat in his own comfortable quarters, usually well away from
the hubbub of the kitchen. The artistas or skilled workers have another dining room, simply
furnished with a long wooden table and bench seats. The remaining pessoal (staff) either eat
outside at a huge stone table or in a spartan refectório (refectory). Most major quintas also
have cardenhos (dormitories) to accommodate the roga or gang of pickers for the duration of
the harvest. The cardenhos, densely packed with bunk beds, are frequently the scene of many
a melodrama in their own right. With the sexes separated from each other by a flimsy wall
or a wooden screen, it is not unusual for affairs of the heart to come to a head in the middle
of vintage. Although generally good-humoured, passions are occasionally inflamed with a
few glasses of aguardente. It is not uncommon for the police to be called out in the middle
of vintage to intervene in a domestic dispute that has turned violent.
the role oF the quinta
For a century or more the influence of the quinta waned. In the 1870s, properties like
Quinta da Boa Vista, Roncão, Romaneira and Zimbro were much better known than they
are today. Henry Vizetelly remarked at the time that the house of Feuerheerd maintained
‘certain of its vintage wines from particular quintas intact’. But following the devastation
wreaked on the region by phylloxera, vineyard yields fell to such low levels that shippers
were compelled to blend wines from a number of properties. The wines from many
prominent quintas were therefore absorbed into declared vintage blends and the properties
lost their independence as a result. Legislation followed in 1927 that also discriminated
against the individual quinta (see page 38). Although there were notable exceptions like