1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

The Villa Nova Wine Lodges—Vintage Ports. 125

Lodges of Warre and Co., Peuerheerd and Co., Taylor, Pladgato, and Co., and the Viscondo Villar-Allen—The Natural Ports and other AVines ofthe latter—Prince Bismarck's Port—The Lodges and AVines of Hunt,Koope, Teage, and Co., A''anzeller and Co., and Mackenzie, Driscoll, and Co.—The Oporto Steam Cooperage Company and their Establishment. The sliipments ofPortwine to England,wliich had continued increasing upto the time of the great Continentalwar,afterwai'ds experienced considerablefluctuations,and atthe establishmentof peace seem to have fallen from an average of upwards of 40,000 pipes to considerably less than 30,000 per annum. It wasabout this time that several existing large firms first established them selves at Oporto. The house of Cockbum, Smithes,and Co., for instance, Avhich for a quarter of a centuiy has held the rank of second largest shijopers of Port wine, was founded dui-ing the year of Waterloo. The compact and extensive lodges of this firm, comprising sixteen long, broad, and lofty cumes, parallel ■with and adjoining each other, are without a rival at VillaNova. There is a certain architectural pretension about their exterior observable in no other stores, dwarfed columns surmounted by urns of fanciful design rising up between each succeeding pointed gable. Originally built by the famous Alto Douro Wine Company, in 1833 they were mined and then set on fire by the Miguelite army on its retreat from Villa Nova at the raising of the siege of Oporto, to prevent the vast stock of wine ■which they contained falling into the hands of their opponents. The Portuenses, who knew nothing of the circumstance of the lodges having beenpreviously mined, were suddenly startled by a formidable explosionwhich shook Villa Nova to its foundations. The roofs of the buildings were blo'wn into the air, but the solid walls sufficiently withstood the shock to enable the lodges to be restored, and after an interval of several years they came into the possession of the present occupiers. Pacing the entrance toMartinez,Gassiot, andCo.'s is a narrow lane conducting to the premises of Cockburn, Smithes, and Co. On our way thither we pass a string of bullock-carts conveying pipes of 'wine down to the Douro for shipment. Entering an