234 Port anD the Douro
wines have gained in importance and the company is focusing on higher quality across the
board. Aged tawnies (particularly the twenty-year-old) are balanced, refined and delicate.
After a let up in vintage declarations in the early 1990s, Royal Oporto’s 1997 vintage Port
showed a return to form perhaps not seen since the 1950s.
Rozès*
SPR Vinhos SA
Rua candido dos Reis, 526-532, apartado 376, 4401- 070 Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 223 771 680
http://www.rozes.com.pt
The fortunes of Rozès have been linked inextricably with those of France since the firm
was founded by Bordeaux wine merchant Ostende Rozès in 1855. His son Edmond
developed the brand name ‘Rozès’ and established a lodge in Vila Nova de Gaia. During
the Second World War the company ceased trading when the partners returned to France
to take part in the Resistance. Activities only resumed again in 1956 when Guy and
Yves Rozès returned to Portugal. The company was sold by the family in 1974 and,
after a number of changes of ownership, Rozès was bought by the French luxury goods
conglomerate LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët-Hennessey) in 1987. Having built up
the brand, the company was sold on to the Vranken Group (now known as Vranken-
Pommery-Monopole) in 1999 who merged the company with São Pedro das Águias three
years later.
Having had no vineyards of its own, since 1999 Rozès has built up a vineyard holding
high in the Douro Superior on the Spanish border. Many of the wines bear the brand name
Terras de Grifó and are made from the three properties in the Douro, the principal one
being Quinta de Grifó, named after the vultures in the area. Rozès Ports have improved
in quality and since 2000 vintages are to be taken more seriously. Prior to 1997, Rozès
vintage Ports tend to be simple and early maturing.
sandeman
c/o Sogrape Vinhos SA
aldeia nova, 4430-809, avintes, Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 227 838 104
http://www.sograpevinhos.eu
The Sandeman Don is one of the most instantly recognisable of all logos (see page 39) and
helped to propel Sandeman into being one of the largest single Port brands. The company
was formed by a Scotsman, George Sandeman, in 1790. He was lent £300 by his father
and began selling Port from Tom’s Coffee House off Cornhill in the City of London. The
business flourished and by 1792 Sandeman was representing the sherries of James Duff of
Cadiz (forerunner of Duff Gordon). In the same year he shipped and bottled one of the
earliest vintage Ports: Sandeman 1790. As the business grew, Sandeman moved from the
coffee house and eventually established a headquarters at St Swithin’s Lane, also in London.
The company remained there until the lease finally expired in 1969.