For The Love Of Port

Not a bad little article, I only take exception to the title of it. It implies that Port is only for certain times of the year, which is rubbish

" The oldest Port producer is Croft, founded in 1588 and known for big, plump, jammy and luscious wines,"

i thought it was kopke in 1638

I thoguht croft was founded in the 1700s or something well after the quoted 1588.

Jeff G. wrote:I thoguht croft was founded in the 1700s or something well after the quoted 1588.

The Croft website gives the background to the 1588 date.

Lou Marmon wrote:Finding older Ports at a reasonable price or buying young ones from producers with proven track records of excellence is the most value-oriented approach.

I did particularly enjoy this little nugget of wisdom in the article...!

That's dishonest

as the croft family dind't come in until 1736

Jeff G. wrote:That's dishonest

as the croft family didn't come in until 1736

Using the same logic, almost all of the traditional port shippers disappeared about 100 years ago.

If you want to understand how tenuous the links are to the claimed foundation dates of most of the old port shippers you should read Oporto, Old & New by Charles Sellers. There are very few who started out as Port shippers. Most were general merchants shipping wool, fish and anything else they could trade. The trick in establishing the claim to be "the oldest port shipper" is to establish all of the links going back to the oldest firm you can find operating out of Oporto and stick your flag in the ground. There are no rules!

Croft currently have the honour of the claim, but it is only a matter of time before someone else sends a researcher into the archives to find something older. Perhaps one day we will know which port shipping company is descended from the Roman Centurion who first sent a couple of Pipes to Caesar

Derek is correct, it's always interesting to hear the "founding" date of many a company. Most had nothing to do with the wine industry until much later. For that matter some of them weren't even founded by the same family that currently runs them, despite what is generally said or assumed. For example, it's interesting that few people know Niepoort wasn't started by the Niepoort family. But instead by another gentleman who a year or so later hired Dirk's ancestor, who then acquired the business and renamed it.

Andy Velebil wrote:For example, it's interesting that few people know Niepoort wasn't started by the Niepoort family.

For a minute there I thought you were going to tell us it wasn't started by the Niepoort family, but by another family of the same name!