Port ProDuCers anD shiPPers 209churchill
Churchill Graham, Lda
Rua da Fonte nova, 5, 4400-156 Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 223 703 641
http://www.churchills-port.com
Churchill’s gravitas as a Port shipper belies its youthful age. Deprived of their family
Port house by the sale of W. & J. Graham to the Symingtons in 1970, brothers Anthony,
Johnny and William Graham established Churchill Graham in 1981. It was the first new
British Port shipper in half a century. The Grahams named the company after Johnny’s
wife (née Churchill) and his own family surname, but trade under the Churchill brand.
With a lodge rented from Taylor and a shoestring budget, Johnny Graham quickly
gained a reputation for small quantities of high-quality wines pitched mainly at the UK
market. The company had no quintas to call its own and bought in wines from properties
belonging to the Borges de Sousa family. From 1982 to 1999 Quinta do Fojo, Quinta
da Manuela and Quinta da Água Alta have provided the backbone for some ripe, plump
vintage Ports. Quinta da Agua Alta, with its own distinctive terroir, was bottled as a
single-quinta wine.
In 1999, Churchill changed direction and bought two properties, Quinta da Gricha
on the bank of the Douro above Quinta de Roriz and Quinta do Rio in the Torto
Valley. These now form the basis for Churchill’s thick-set vintage and LBV and Gricha
is produced as a single-quinta vintage in good interim years. The company also makes a
range of Douro wines known as Churchill Estates. With few stocks of old wine to draw
on, the Churchill range has gradually developed to include a ten- and twenty-year-old
tawny and a well-aged dry white Port.
cockburn
Symington Family Estates
travessa Barão de Forrester 86, apartado 26, 4431-901 Vila nova de Gaia, Portugal
tel: (351) 223 776 300
http://www.symington.com
The butt of many a pun over its pronunciation, Cockburn is one of the best-known
names in the Port trade. The story of Cockburn’s success is an intriguing tale of six
enterprising families and a multinational. The firm was established in 1815 by George
Wauchope and Robert Cockburn (whose younger brother Henry, Lord Cockburn, was a
Scottish judge). Originally called Cockburn Wauchope & Co., the name was extended to
Cockburn Wauchope & Greig when the two founding partners were joined by Captain
William Greig in 1828. Casks branded with the initials ‘C. W. G.’ can still be seen at
Cockburn’s lodges in Gaia. The company has always looked outwards, and in 1829 (just
fourteen years after it was formed) Archibald and Alexander Cockburn established an
office in London. The family was joined in 1845 by Henry and John Smithes and the
firm was renamed Cockburn Smithes, the name which survives to this day. John Smithes
subsequently married Eleanor Cobb whose brother, Charles, joined the London office in