Port ProDuCers anD shiPPers 213The bulk of Croft’s production is represented by Triple Crown, a soft easy ruby, and
Distinction, a rather deeper, richer reserve wine. In 2008, Croft pioneered ‘Pink Port’
using New World technology to produce a pale, delicate, fruity rosé, which is marketed
as a mixer. During the 1970s and 1980s Quinta da Roêda was a rather inconsistent
SQVP, but since 1997 the wines have been looking more and more promising. With
recent vintages (2003, 2007 and 2009), Croft has found a new house style, producing
very satisfying sweet, plump wines that are a reflection of the terroir at Quinta da Roêda.
Croft is back on form.
dalva
C. da Silva (Vinhos) SA
Rua Felizardo Lima, 247, apartado 1530, 4400-140 Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 223 746 040
http://www.cdasilva.pt
Founded in 1862, C. da Silva is named after Clemente da Silva who came from Brazil
in the 1930s. The company now belongs to La Martiniquaise alongside Gran Cruz, the
largest single brand of Port. C. da Silva maintain a huge stock of old wine at lodges
in the less-fashionable part of Gaia. An eighteenth-century house at the centre of the
complex is thought to have belonged to Baron Forrester. The bulk of C. da Silva’s wines
are standard rubies and tawnies destined for Germany, Belgium, Holland and France,
sold under the names Dalva and Presidencial. However, the company has an excellent
stock of colheitas dating back to the 1930s which are mostly well kept and used for
blending into a competent range of aged tawnies. Deliciously rich 1952 and 1963 ‘Golden
White’ colheitas form part of an unusual, mature, honeyed Branco Velho blended to
an average age of about fifteen years. Vintage Ports, which tend to be light and early
maturing, sometimes show well in comparative tastings. Jim Reader, who used to head
the winemaking team at Cockburn, has come out of retirement to advise the firm.
delaforce
Delaforce Sons & Ca – Vinhos Lda
Rua azevedo Magalhães, 314, 4430 – 022 Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 223 775 100
http://www.delaforce.pt
The Delaforce family were Huguenots who fled from France to London in order to
escape religious persecution in the seventeenth century. Their connection with Portugal
began in 1834 when the young John Fleurriet Delaforce went to Oporto to set up a new
Port-shipping company for the partners of Martinez Gassiot. John’s son, George Henry
Delaforce, founded his own firm of Port shippers in 1868 and rapidly established strong
trading links with countries as far-flung as Russia, Scandinavia, Germany and the UK. By
the end of the nineteenth century, George Delaforce was purveyor to the Portuguese kings,
an unusual honour for a non-Portuguese citizen. Delaforce remained in family hands until
- Unable to finance the lei do terço (two-thirds stock ratio) during those bleak years,