222 Port anD the Douro
acquired by the company in 1922 and now serves as one of the main vinification centres for
the companies belonging to Sogevinus. (See also Barros, Burmester and Cálem.)
Krohn
Wiese & Krohn Sucrs, Lda
Rua dr. antónio Granjo, 122, apartado 1, 4401-901 Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 223 771 720
http://www.krohn.pt
Norway is not a country usually associated with Port – until that Portuguese delicacy
bacalhau (salt cod) enters the equation. Theodor Wiese and Dankert Krohn were in the
business of selling fish to Portugal and shipped Port back to Norway, setting up their
own firm in 1865. In 1906, an English family by the name of Arnsby briefly entered
the business but the company came under the control of Edmundo Augusto Carneiro
in 1937. Wiese & Krohn is currently run by the third generation of the Carneiro family,
represented by José Falcão Carneiro and his sister Iolanda.
Wiese & Krohn has developed a good reputation for colheitas and aged tawnies. It
maintains remarkable stocks of old Port with one wine dating back to 1863, two years
prior to the foundation of the company. This is almost undrinkably concentrated with an
aroma and flavour of black molasses. Such wines are occasionally used to add complexity
to younger blends. Krohn’s twenty-year-old tawnies and colheitas from the 1950s
and 1960s generally combine a lifted character with the sweetness and concentration
that comes from ageing in wood. I have, however, come across some rather rustic and
alarmingly oxidised wines.
Krohn’s frequent vintage declarations are often overlooked. Although lighter than the
mainstream, in many years the wines are soft and elegant for drinking in the mid-term.
In 1989 Krohn bought a small vineyard, Quinta do Retiro Novo in the Torto Valley,
which serves as the company’s main vinification centre. Krohn is unusual in that the
winemaking is overseen by two women: Maria José Aguiar and Iolanda Carneiro.
Martinez
c/o Symington Family Estates
travessa Barão de Forrester, 86, apartado 26, 4431-901 Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 223 776 300
http://www.symington.com
Martinez is a distinguished, old-established Port firm with a relatively low profile today.
It was founded in 1790 by Sebastian Gonzalez Martinez, who sold Port, Sherry and
cigars from an office in Mincing Lane in the City of London. In 1822 Martinez was
joined by an Englishman, John Peter Gassiot. They acquired a lodge in Vila Nova de
Gaia in 1834 and entrusted the management to John Fleurriet Delaforce, founding
father of the Delaforce dynasty in Portugal. By the time Sebastian Martinez retired in
1849, the company was the largest shipper of Port and Sherry to the UK. The business
passed to the Gassiots. By the turn of the twentieth century, they had no successors and