Port ProDuCers anD shiPPers 241Vista alegre
Vallegre, Vinhos do Porto SA
Rua do sporting club de coimbrões, apartado 101, 4431-902 Vila nova de Gaia
tel. (351) 223 745 630
http://www.vallegre.pt
Vallegre belongs to the Cunha Barros family who own two quintas, Vista Alegre and Valle
Longo, located close to Pinhão and in the Tedo valley respectively. Like many Douro
families, Cunha Barros used to sell to other shippers but in 1988 decided to go it alone
and produce wines under their own label. Vista Alegre is now the brand name for a full
range of Ports from white and ruby to vintage. All the wines, including Douro red under
the Encostas de Pombal label, are vinified at Quinta de Vista Alegre and aged in the
company’s armazém in Régua. With two magnificent quintas, Vallegre cannot be short of
good fruit but in the past I have found Vista Alegre Ports to be rather variable in quality,
although in some years the estate can excel.
Warre
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
Established in 1670, Warre (pronounced ‘War’) is the oldest of the British-owned houses.
The first name associated with the company is John Clark, who may have brought the
company to Oporto from Viana do Castelo, where it began as a general trader. Certainly
by the time the Indian-born William Warre joined the firm in 1729 it was firmly
established in Oporto and trading in wine. Warre married Elizabeth Whitehead, sister
of John Whitehead who was later British Consul in Oporto and was instrumental in
building the Factory House. Warre’s eldest son, also named William, followed his father
as Senior Partner and went on to become British Consul himself.
In the late nineteenth century, the Warre family ceased to be directly involved in the
firm. Dr Edmond Warre was Headmaster of Eton from 1884 to 1905 and Provost from
1909 to 1918. George Acheson Warre became a partner in the competing firm of Silva
& Cosens. It was in 1905 that Andrew James Symington, who had arrived from Glasgow
in 1882, became a partner in Warre. He soon took a share in Silva & Cosens as well and
established the foundations of the Symington’s dominion, which now includes Cockburn
and Graham as well. The Symingtons and the Warres ran the firm of Warre & Ca. in
tandem until the Warre family sold out in the early 1960s. William (‘Bill’) Warre M.W.
continued to work for the company in London until he retired in 1991.
Warre has always been on the top tier of the Symington family Port houses and
produces some of the finest, most elegant of vintage Ports. Grapes for Warre’s vintages
were traditionally sourced in the Rio Torto. The wines were on the light side in the
1940s and 1950s but regained substance and flesh during the 1960s and 1970s. They are
characterised by their fragrant, perfumed aromas and opulent fruit and yet, as the 1963,