1880 Facts about Port and Madeira by Henry Vizetelly

-83

In the Port Wine Cotmtry.

da Sedavim,to reacli -which -we quit the high road and foUo-w a narro-w bullock-track bordered -with olive-trees. Here -we found the -vintage over, and merely some agua pe being made in one ■of the lagares. The 80 pipes of high-class -wine which the quinta had yielded had been purchased, we learned, by Messrs. Cockbum, Smithes, and Co., who buy up the produce of a good number of quintas of long-established repute. On the other side of the Rio Torto we note the Quinta do BomKetiro, also producing some excellent -wine; while on the same side of the river as Sedavim, but higher up the valley, we come to the district of Perdiz, where the phylloxera hadreduced the yield to some 120 pipes. The -wine of this quinta, purchased by Messrs. Sdva and Cosens, is of excellent quality, and possesses that great depth of colour for which all the Rio Torto growths aremore or less noted. TheprincipalPort wine shippers,it should be remarked, obtain their supplies of new wine in various ways. Certain among them contract to buy the -wine of particular quintas for a series of years, and in this case superintend its manufacture. Others buy the produce of merely a few notable quintas, and secure their principal supply from small growers in the good districts, often purchasing the -wine without troubling themselves to see it made, and judging of it from samples and their knowledge of the farmers and particular localities. This system is not without its advantages, as the shipper, compara tively unfettered in his purchases, can buy as little -wine as he pleases in years of bad vintages. Within the district of the Rio Torto,but beyondErvedoza the little village up the mountain where we were lost and benighted when we were less familiar with the topography of the Alto Douro than we are at present—and outside the exten sive circle of vineyards assailed by the phylloxera, is the Quinta da Soalheira, exceedingly well situated, planted with the best varieties of black grape, and producing on an average 180 pipes of -wine yearly. The vineyard when completely plantedwill yield, it is anticipated, from six to seven hundred pipes per annum; and its proprietor, undismayedby the phylloxera at the threshold