Elite Traveler March-April 2016

INSPIRE DOURO

Paul Symington, chairman and joint managing director of SFE, believes that part of the solution should be to ensure higher prices for the grapes used for table wine; while farmers may receive less than 70 cents per pound of grapes used for Port, they receive only about 15 cents per pound of grapes used for table wine, yet it costs 50 cents per pound to produce them, so many farmers make a loss. Adrian Bridge, chief executive officer of The Fladgate Partnership – owner of brands including Croft, Krohn, Fonseca and Taylor’s – thinks the priority should be the few hundred “professional” farmers, as distinct from the many thousands of “weekend” farmers, and welcomes the establishment in July 2015 of the Association of Professional Farmers of the Douro (ProDouro for short). However, both of these key players are convinced, as are others in the region, that well managed tourism is also vital, and both have recently overseen new visitor centers in the valley. NEWBEGINNING FOR BOMFIM On May 23, 2015, a new winery and visitor center at the Symington family’s Quinta do Bomfim was inaugurated by Portugal’s prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho. Housed in a historic schist-built warehouse, it contains a rare collection of beautiful and insightful 19th- and early 20th-century photographs of life in the Douro, by turns inspiring, moving and shocking. There are also documents that record centuries of farming in its vineyards. Also on show is a replica barco rabelo , a cargo boat unique to the region, built by craftsmen at the Lisbon Maritime Museum, while an adjoining building has space for special tastings and events, as well as a shop where a wide range of the company’s wines are available to buy. During the harvest, visitors can watch how Port is made from a viewing platform. At other times of the year a film, with subtitles in six languages, shows how the grapes ferment in the lagares , the thigh-deep, granite treading tanks. Visitors may also walk through the Bomfim vineyards. Bomfim means “good end”, the name dating back to a time when travelers were thankful to have survived the treacherous rapids on the river. Travel is easier and safer today, by boat, car, or train, and Bomfim is less than 330 yards from Pinhão marina or train station. PANASCAL AND ROÊDA Fonseca’s flagship Quinta do Panascal has been open to the public since 1992, one of the first to be so, and now offers tours of the vineyards and winery, as well as the opportunity to buy wines by the bottle or glass. But in 2015, The Fladgate Group opened a larger, new visitor center at Croft’s flagship Quinta da Roêda in Pinhão. It is housed in Roêda’s old stables, which have been carefully restored in the traditional Douro Valley style. These provide an airy, light and spacious environment in which to see beautiful old black and white

photographs, taste the wines, and browse the shop for these and other local products, such as the estate’s own extra-virgin olive oil. There is a guided walking tour through the property, stopping at points of interest along the way and taking in magnificent views across the river. A patch of color coded, individual vines allows visitors to try to identify the different grape varieties. As many as 11 are now cultivated across The Fladgate Partnership, following the replanting under David Guimaraens, the group’s technical director and head winemaker, of several that had fallen out of favor during the shift toward larger block plantings in the 1970s and 1980s. During the harvest, visitors may even (by special arrangement) get into lagares to experience the strange prickly-cum-squidgy sensation of foot treading, without experiencing the exhaustion that comes from doing it for four hours late into the night, after a day spent toiling in the vineyards. EXCEPTIONAL HOSPITALITY In the hope of enhancing the experience and persuading visitors to stay longer in the Douro, in October 2015 The Fladgate Partnership acquired the Vintage House Hotel in Pinhão. The first quality hotel in the area, having opened in 1988, it enjoys a fine location, and all of its 43 rooms and suites overlook the river. Bridge hopes that some of its guests will come here from the magnificent five-star hotel that