Port ProDuCers anD shiPPers 233premium ruby known as ‘Finest Reserve’ and a ten-year-old tawny. Apart from vintage Port, La
Rosa’s most fulfilling wines are a firm-flavoured, unfiltered LBV and a properly wood-aged, dry
white Port. All the wines are aged on the property, which reinforces the house style.
Quinta de la Rosa began producing a red Douro wine in 1990 (see Chapter 7). They
also sell olive oil from the property.
Royal oporto
Companhia Geral da Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro, SA
Rua azevedo Magalhães, 314, apartado 22, 4431-952 Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 223 775 100
http://www.realcompanhiavelha.pt
Known in English as ‘Royal Oporto’ and in Portuguese as Real Companhia Velha (RCV),
this company has a controversial history. It was established in 1756 by Royal Charter
as a monopoly controlled by the then Prime Minister, the Marquês de Pombal. With
its headquarters at Régua, the Companhia continued to enjoy numerous privileges and
regulatory powers into the nineteenth century. It was briefly dissolved but re-established
in 1865 as a public company.
The firm grew quickly in the twentieth century, becoming the largest single Port
shipper some years before downsizing in the late 1990s. For many years the fortunes of
the company have centred on one man, Manuel da Silva Reis, who began as an office
boy in the firm of Souza Guedes and by the early 1970s owned twelve wine-producing
companies including Pombal’s former monopoly. Then came a setback: following the
1974 revolution, Royal Oporto was occupied by its workforce and nationalised by the
government. In an effort to keep afloat, much of the company’s better-quality Port was
sold off to other shippers. The company was returned to the Silva Reis family in 1978,
stripped of its most important asset, and Manuel da Silva Reis never forgave the other
shippers for purchasing Royal Oporto’s stock. In 1990, 40 per cent of the firm was bought
by the Casa do Douro, one of Port’s quasi-official controlling bodies. Tantamount to
insider dealing, this sent a wave of protest through the establishment. The government
nevertheless consented to the sale before acting to withdraw many of the Casa do Douro’s
regulatory powers. The acquisition of RCV virtually bankrupted the Casa do Douro.
RCV is the second largest single vineyard owner in the Douro after the Symingtons. The
company’s principal estate is Quinta das Carvalhas, which covers an entire hill opposite
Pinhão, crowned by the famous round house. Quinta dos Acipretes faces Tua, Quinta do
Cidró is on the plateau near São João de Pesqueira, and Quinta Casal da Granja, on the
altos near Alijó, serves as the company’s main vinification centre.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, RCV tended to put quantity before quality. Frequently
declared vintages were weak and the company’s main focus lay in shipping large volumes
of standard tawny to France at bargain-basement prices. The wines have been sold under
any number of different names, among them Silva Reis, Souza Guedes, Hooper’s, Pitters,
Real Companhia Velha and Royal Oporto. Since the late 1990s the company has changed
direction under the under the auspices of Pedro da Silva Reis (Manuel’s second son). Douro