1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

liANDING POET WINE AT VILLA NOVA.

X.—The Villa Nova Wine-Lodges—Vintage Poets.

The House of Cockburn, Smithes, and Co. Founded during the Year of Waterloo—The Lodges of the Firm originally built by the Alto Douro Wine Company—They are Blown up bythe retreating Miguelites in 1833 —Their present Appearance—The fine Vintage and Tawny Ports of the Firm—Original Establishment of the House of Offley, Forrester, and Co. in 1761—Their Lodges known as the Armazens das Aguias—Witness at them the Preparation of Port Wine for Shipment—Fine Vintage Wines from the Quinta da Boa Vista—White Ports for Russia—Silva and Cosens's Villa Nova Establishment—Their New Lodgethe Largest at Villa Nova—Various Mechanical Appliances had recourse to for Economising Labour—The Firm's Steam Cooperage and Machinery for Cask-Making— Their Vintage and other Wines—The various Lodges of W.and J.Graham and Co.—Their numerous Blending Vats and Shafts with Fan-shaped Wings—Conveniences for Transferring Wine from one part of the Establishment to another—Animated Scene at their Cooperage—Samples ■of Fine Ports shown to us—Only the Best Alto Douro Wines of Good Years Shipped as Vintage Wines—The Treatment they Undergo after Arriving at Villa Nova—Mode of Blending—The Racking and Shipment of Vintage Ports—Vintage Years in the Alto Douro since 1834—The Shippers of Vintage Ports—Vintage Wines Tasted at the