Port anD the Douro 73admit that many of these are the same varieties with different names and complain, like
Forrester half a century before, about the lack of research to date. Throughout much of
Portugal, the picture was further complicated post-phylloxera by the widespread use of
direct producers and hybrids intended for use as rootstock that were planted in their own
right among indigenous Vitis vinifera vines.
Portugal’s turbulent early twentieth-century politics meant that little was undertaken
in the vineyards until the Salazar regime gained a grip on the country in the 1930s. Port
shippers pursued their own isolated attempts at varietal research. An edict was issued
banning the use of poor quality American vine species for Port in 1935, but with the
establishment of co-operatives after World War II, quantity became more important than
quality. Port was fortunately outside the jurisdiction of the Junta Nacional do Vinho
(JNV) which, in conjunction with the Estação de Agronomia Nacional at Oeiras near
Lisbon, promoted a series of new varieties with less than promising names like Vaca
Leiteira (‘milk cow’) and Carrega Burros (‘load the donkeys’). These were widely planted
in Estremadura, the Ribatejo and Dão, where they contributed to a collapse in quality,
but fortunately they did not find their way into the Douro.
No attempt was made to co-ordinate research into Douro grape varieties until 1968.
At the same time as mechanisation began to be an issue due to labour shortages, the
CEVD (Centro de Estudos Vitivinicolas do Douro) planted a number of experimental
Men who shaPeD the Douro
John smithes (1910–1999)
a partner in cockburn smithes from 1938 until it was taken over by harvey’s in 1962,
John smithes was a diminutive man with a famously fiery temper and a devotion to Port.
he liked to spend time in the douro, often eschewing domestic comfort, and was much
respected by growers. encouraged by his grandfather who had been experimenting
with different grafting and pruning methods at Quinta do tua, John smithes began
experimenting with varietal planting in the 1930s. at a time when touriga nacional
was on the way to extinction, smithes began a selection process to find higher-yielding
clones. although his pioneering work was not recognised for another thirty years, it
led directly to the planting of cockburn’s Vilariça vineyard on virgin territory in 1978
and Portugal’s programme of clonal selection which began the following year. it was
partly John smithes’ commercial acumen that made cockburn the largest Port shipper
in the UK market with Fine Ruby, followed in the 1970s by special Reserve. smithes
was an accomplished and respected taster and an accurate spitter, able to hit a target
from six feet as he removed his false teeth before tasting. he famously bypassed the
1977 vintage (declared by all the other major shippers), believing that the wines were
not up to the required standard, which sadly undermined cockburn’s reputation for
vintage Port. When he retired to england the 1980s, he emulated a douro quinta in
south devon, with terraces and vines.