90 Port anD the Douro
Quinta do Noval, which retained its autonomy throughout, the Douro quinta only began
to recapture lost ground in the early 1960s. Taylor’s released Quinta de Vargellas 1958 as
a single-quinta vintage Port and other shippers followed suit, using the quinta designation
to distinguish between fully declared vintages (i.e. blends from a number of properties)
and good intervening years. This process gathered momentum in the 1980s and 1990s,
accompanied by improvements in vinification which meant that small quantities of wine
of high quality could be made in all but the poorest of years. For most shippers, the quinta
has become the marketing vehicle for these wines made in what are now being termed ‘non-
classic’ years (see page 161).
Quintas were given greater autonomy following Portugal’s accession to the European
Union in 1986 when the monopolistic legislation introduced in 1927 was finally revoked.
For the first time in nearly sixty years, independently owned quintas were given direct access
to overseas markets, thereby allowing them to circumvent the major shippers occupying
the entreposto in Vila Nova de Gaia. Without the well-oiled marketing machinery of the
shippers to propel them to stardom, the single-quinta movement has been slow to take
off. But helped by the increasing popularity of unfortified Douro wine, the single quinta
is once again on the ascendant with properties like Quinta do Vallado, Quinta do Crasto,
Quinta do Infantado, Quinta de la Rosa and Quinta do Vale Meão becoming well-known
shippers of both Port and Douro wine in their own right. One of the consequences of this
is the awakening of interest in the different terroirs of the Douro.
ProMinent quintas
It is beyond the realm of this book to profile every quinta in the Douro Valley, but a number
of estates are of historical importance and/or keystones in the edifice. I have listed the quintas
geographically and grouped them by sub-region starting with the Baixo Corgo to the west and