244 Port anD the Douro
d’Or, simply because the Douro vines, with all their advantages of soil, climate, and
aspect, are not equal to the carbenet [sic] and the cruchinet rouge of the Gironde or the
pineau [sic] noir of Burgundy. There is no reason whatever why a perfectly fermented
and consequently dry Alto Douro wine, which has received no addition of spirit should
not find a market in England...’The market failed to materialise and shortly after Vizetelly visited the Douro, phylloxera
finally put paid to unfortified wine, much of which had to be distilled to provide the
aguardente for Port. As Ernest Cockburn records, in 1877 ‘prices in Oporto started to rise
all round in view of the position created by the phylloxera and the heavy demand from
Brazil for Consumos at a time when the Consumo districts had failed at the vintage. This
caused prices of Portugal brandy ... to rise appreciably’. The shortage continued into the
1890s when Cockburn mentions that there had not been enough ‘Consumo’ (Claret-type
wine of the Douro District) in Portugal to satisfy the demands, and even the price for
home consumption in the country constituted a record. The situation existed in the north
and south of Portugal, and firms found it necessary to pay excessive prices for wines for
‘Beberagem [drinking] for their employees’.
The dismissive tone adopted by Cockburn, writing in the 1930s, was shared by
the majority of Port shippers for the greater part of the twentieth century. ‘Consumo’,
‘beberagem’, ‘table wine’ (call it what you will) was accorded the lowliest status in the
Douro caste system with the best grapes reserved exclusively for the production of Port.
The majority of shippers embraced Samuel Johnson’s opinion that ‘Claret is for boys, Port
Men who shaPeD the Douro
Fernando nicolau de almeida (1913–1998)
in 1950 Ferreira’s former chief taster and technical director made a visit to Bordeaux to
study production techniques for unfortified wines. With characteristic self-effacement,
he was fond of explaining that he found it impossible to conceive how the Bordelais
could possibly tread their grapes in huge wooden vats. nicolau de almeida soon found
out that the Bordelais employed softer, more gentle extraction methods than was
customary in the douro.
inspired by this he returned to his family estate, Quinta do Vale Meão in the douro
superior, and began to put their ideas into practice using high-quality Port grapes. there
was no electricity at the time (ironically there is now a hydro-electric station nearby) so
nicolau de almeida had to be inventive. in order to combat the raging heat, he rigged
up a heath Robinson system of temperature control using blocks of ice which were
brought up by train from oporto insulated with sawdust. Ferreira’s Barca Velha was
born in 1952 and quickly earned itself the reputation as Portugal’s uncrowned ‘first
growth’, commanding a price in excess of many vintage Ports. Fernando nicolau de
almeida is the father of douro wine.