16 Port anD the Douro
was exiled and, in a royal decree of 9 August 1777, the Real Companhia das Vinhas do
Alto Douro lost the monopoly over sale of wine to Brazil. In the same year growers, small
and large, were given the freedom to sell their wines on the open market. The wines of
Monção could once again be exported, although only Port wine itself could be shipped
over the bar of the River Douro.
the exPansion oF the Douro
Up to this time the majority of Douro vineyards were located in the westerly reaches of
the region, particularly around Régua, Godim, Lobrigos and Cambres in the area known
today as the Baixo Corgo (‘Below the River Corgo’). The town of Régua, well situated on
a broad curve in the river, became the undisputed centre of the wine region, having been
the administrative headquarters of Pombal’s Companhia. The building, painted pink, now
houses the Museu do Douro (Douro Museum).
Relatively few vineyards were to be found upstream from the River Corgo (the Cima
Corgo) and almost none beyond Pinhão which still marked the easternmost limit of
quality wine production. On a map of 1761 demarcation, the land corresponding to
Quinta do Bomfim and Quinta da Roêda remained unplanted. Apart from those vineyards
around Cambres and Penajoia opposite Régua, the south side of the Douro was virtually
uncultivated. Beyond the River Tedo the landscape was described as ‘wild scrub inhabited
by wolves and wild pigs which sometimes cross to the other side of the Douro causing
considerable damage in the vines’. The one notable exception was Quinta de Roriz, which
was leased from a religious order, the Tresminas da Ordem de Cristo, by a Scotsman
named Robert Archibald. Villa Maior, writing a century later in 1876, says that ‘being
very much addicted to field sports and used to scouring the hills and glens of Scotland,
[Archibald] found the savage wilds and rugged steeps of the Douro very well suited to his
tastes. His sporting excursions having carried him to the place of Roriz, it came into his
mind to build a shooting box... This lodge was the beginning of Quinta do Roriz’.
Further upstream, Cachão de Valeira (the Valeira Rapids) were the natural limit of the
eastward expansion of the wine region. Compressed into a narrow white-water torrent
by huge slabs of granite, the Douro ceased to be navigable. Beyond Cachão de Valeira,
the Douro Superior formed a distinct region in its own right. With its agriculture based
on cereals and cattle, the hardy populace had traditionally looked towards Spain and the
fairs at Salamanca as an outlet for their produce. Some Portuguese from the towns and
villages near the border had even gone to study at Salamanca University. From the mid-
seventeenth century onwards, successive skirmishes between Portugal and Spain had led
directly to the isolation and impoverishment of this once prosperous region. The need to
integrate the Douro Superior motivated the Companhia to begin the monumental task
of clearing the Valeira rapids.
Work began in 1780 and lasted twelve years. It was financed by a tax of 400 reis
for every pipe of Port, aguardente, vinegar or ‘any liquid’ transported by river. As the