Port anD the Douro 119Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira
seixo de ansiães, 5140 carrazeda de ansiães
Grade a
Facing Vesúvio across the Douro, Senhora da Ribeira was one of three quintas to be bought
for Silva & Cosens (Dows) at the end of the nineteenth century by George Acheson
Warre (the others are Bomfim and Zimbro). The property remained with Silva & Cosens
until it had to be sold by the Symington family in the mid-1950s in order to make ends
meet. An entry in Dow’s Quinta do Bomfim visitor’s book dated 21 May 1954 records:
‘Went to Senhora da Ribeira to conclude sale ... It’s been a most sad occasion but we
leave the happiest memories and many good faithful friends here.’ The wine continued to
be an important component in Dow’s Vintage Ports, being foot trodden at the quinta in
traditional stone lagares. In 1998, just as Dow’s celebrated their two-hundredth anniversary,
Quinta da Senhora da Ribeira was bought back by the Symingtons and is once more in
the family fold. The winery has been completely rebuilt and, like Graham’s Malvedos and
Warre’s Cavadinha, equipped with robotic lagares. Senhora da Ribeira makes wonderfully
fragrant, floral wines which, in good interim years, are bottled as single-quinta vintage Ports.
Grapes from nearby Quinta do Santinho, belonging to members of the Symington family,
are sold to Dow.
Quinta Vale da Mina
seixo de ansiães, 5140 carrazeda de ansiães
Grade a
This ten-hectare property above Senhora da Ribeira belongs to Cristiano van Zeller (ex-
Quinta do Noval), who replanted the property in 1986 and began making a single-quinta
vintage Port in 1995.
Quinta de Vale Coelho
Vilarinho de castanheira, 5140 carrazeda de ansiães
Grade a
On the north bank of the Douro, Quinta de Vale Coelho (‘Rabbit Valley’) and the adjoining
Quinta da Telhada are some of the most peaceful and unassuming of all properties in the
Douro. Originally known as Quinta do Lobazim de Baixo, Vale Coelho was the first of
Cockburn’s many quintas in the Douro Superior, bought by the firm in the 1890s. Apart
from electricity which arrived in 1965 and still seems something of an imposition, the house
is little changed since. When the Symingtons bought Cockburn’s in 2010, Vale Coelho and
Telhada were both rebranded as Warre estates.
From Pocinho to Barca d’alva (and beyond)
Pocinho is the terminus for the train from Oporto, the railway line having been pruned back
in the 1980s from Barca d’Alva on the frontier with Spain. Pocinho is hardly an end in itself as
it is no more than a rather gloomy railway station supported by a few shacks and cottages with
a hydro-electric station on the Douro nearby. This is the ‘far east’. Without the moderating