Portugal's gift to the world - port wine

Port wine was invented in the C17th when British merchants added brandy to the wine of the Douro region of northern Portugal, to prevent it souring and to improve the taste. The wine was called Port, after the port city of Porto.

Since Warre’s established the first British Port House in 1670, much of Portugal’s port trade has been in the hands of the British, even now. The irony of Porto's leading industry being invented, developed and made profitable by another nation was never lost on Porto's citizens.

The Don, symbol of Sandeman port and sherry,

created in 1928 by George Massiot Brown

In 1790, a century after the establishment of Warre’s British Port House, The House of Sandeman was founded by the Scotsman George Sandeman. With a substantial loan from his father, George Sandeman moved down to London and started dealing with Portuguese and Spanish wines. By 1795, he had established an agency in Cadiz (Spain), dealing with sherry wine, and in 1811 he purchased cellars in Gaia (Portugal), dealing with Porto wine.

By the late C19th brand names were quite unusual and a bit scandalous, but Sandeman wanted to give customers a guarantee of quality. So, in 1880, they became the first Porto House to export bottled and labelled wines. The first agent was appointed by 1903 and within two years, the Company began press marketing and more substantial advertising campaigns. In 1914 Sandeman announced a list of their appointed agents in The Times, a list that included Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Stockholm, New York, Montreal, Sydney, Wellington, Johannesburg and Tientsin.

Sandeman’s famous trademark “The Don” was painted by another Scotsman George Massiot Brown in 1928. This artist was working for the Lochend Printing and approached Sandeman for business. Sandeman requested some designs for posters, and voila!.. the Don was born. The mysterious Don, in his black cape, wide-brimmed black hat and glass of port in hand, was based on the typical Portuguese student’s black cape and a Spanish Caballero hat. This trademark has won recognition internationally for the Sandeman brand, a dramatic figure with his glass of ruby coloured Porto.

House of Sandeman, on the Douro riverbank in Gaia, Porto

George Sandeman, current Chairman of the House of Sandeman, is the 7th generation of this wine family. His great-great-grandfather married a Portuguese lady from the Morais Sarmento family, reinforcing the link with Portugal, and his father married a jerezana, from the Valdespino family, consolidating the wine link with Spain.

When in the city of Porto, tourists have three port-related tours available: a] they can travel to the 99 hectares of Quinta do Seixo vineyards in the Demarcated Douro Region, to examine grape growing and first processing; b] they can travel from the vineyards into the centre of Porto on the specialist wine boats; and/or c] they can visit The House of Sandeman in Vila Nova de Gaia, a virtual museum of wine history. And tasting.

Sandeman Port wine, ageing in oak barrels in the Gaia cellars/caves.

All of Porto's wine cellars are located right on the riverbank of Vila Nova de Gaia, with wonderful views of Porto. The 1797 architecture of the Sandeman building was probably designed by architect Joaquim da Costa Lima Sampaio, who also designed the city’s Royal Palace, but the Sandeman Company did not take possession of this lovely building until 1811.

Finish the tour with wine tasting.

The blog Edwardian Promenade has beautiful photos of Porto, in the late Victorian and Edwardian years. Since the city rests by the sea, its population was always very trade oriented, as Joe and I found. Presumably its large bourgeois class, its industrial revolution and perfect location turned the city into a very important hub in the Atlantic.