Wine, Commerce and Culture: Museums in the Port Wine Lodges of
Transcript of Wine, Commerce and Culture: Museums in the Port Wine Lodges of
Wine, Commerce and Culture:
Museums in the Port Wine Lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal
by
Richard S. Bradley
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Arts
in
Museum Studies
in the
School of Education and Liberal Arts
at
John F. Kennedy University
Approved:
___________________________ _____________________
Department Chair Date
Acknowledgements
Wine, Commerce and Culture was born out of my love for Portugal
and its people. Even more so it grew out of my love for my family, and
especially for my wife Joaquina, whose staunch support, and unfailing
patience in correcting my Portuguese, were my mainstay in this project.
I am very grateful to the many kind people in Portugal who were
so supportive of my work. Ana Margarida Morgado, public relations
manager for Taylor Fladgate & Yeatman; Ana Nápoles, visitors center
manager for Ramos Pinto; Ema Pinto, promotion manager for the
Association of Port Wine Companies; and Professor Maria do Rosario
Campos of the University of Coimbra, all gave generously of their time
and knowledge during long interviews. I particularly thank Ana Filipa
Correia, archives and Museum director at Ramos Pinto for her thoughtful
and thorough responses to my survey. Thank you too, to Linda Vaughn,
visitors center coordinator at Graham's for her helpful input, and to Isabel
Morais of Sogrape for her responses.
I particularly want to express my gratitude to Marjorie Schwarzer,
Chair of the Museum Studies Department at John F. Kennedy University.
In addition to her detailed and insightful editing, her patience and
unswerving confidence kept me going through very trying times.
ii
Table of Contents
Executive Summary................................................................ 1 Methodology........................................................................... 8 Limitations of Methodology.................................................. 12 Literature Review.................................................................. 15 Cultural Tourism....................................................... 16 Museums and Cultural Tourism................................ 19 Museums and Education............................................ 21 Enotourism - Wine Tourism...................................... 25 Wine and Museums................................................... 27 Museums in Wineries................................................ 30 Findings................................................................................. 37 Portuguese Wine Tourism......................................... 38 Port Lodge Interpretation.......................................... 43 History: Origins............................................ 44 History: the Companies................................ 48 Terroir: the Douro........................................ 54 Sub-Regions of the Douro............................ 56 Winemaking.................................................. 58 Wines............................................................ 61 Interpretation: Tours................................................. 65 Tours: Introduction & History...................... 66 Tours: Terroir & Winemaking..................... 67 Tours: Wines & Aging................................. 69 Tours: Tasting.............................................. 71 Interpretation: Museums.......................................... 71 Museums: Cellars......................................... 73 Museums - Burmester.................................. 75 Museums - Cálem........................................ 77 Museums - Croft.......................................... 80 Museums - Ferreira...................................... 84 Museums - Graham...................................... 88 Museums - Ramos Pinto.............................. 91
iii
Table of Contents, continued Museums - Sandeman.................................. 94
Museums - Taylor........................................ 99 Conclusions and Recommendations.................................. 104 Port Lodge Museum Activities.............................. 106 Final Product Description.................................................. 117 Endotes.............................................................................. 118 Bibliography...................................................................... 128 Appendix A: Port Wine Lodge Museum Summary......... 139 Appendix B: Research Surveys.........................................142 Appendix C: Maps of Douro Valley................................. 147 Appendix D: Images of Douro & Gaia............................. 148 Museum Images Appendix E: Cellars.......................................................... 149 Appendix F: Burmester..................................................... 150 Appendix G: Cálem........................................................... 151 Appendix H: Croft............................................................. 152 Appendix I: Ferreira...........................................................153 Appendix J: Graham......................................................... 154 Appendix K: Ramos Pinto................................................ 155 Appendix L: Sandeman.................................................... 156 Appendix M: Taylor......................................................... 157 Product: Presentation Proposal Letter to the Association of Port Wine Companies.....................................158
iv
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness, blinking
out of the dazzling Portuguese summer sun. The heat of the day melted as
the cool, damp air enveloped me. Then, a strange odor wafted over me, at
the same time sweet and musty, filling my lungs and clinging to my skin.
A guide spoke, explaining about the earth in which the grapes grew, the
unique climate and the many varieties of this wine. My mind began to
focus. I was surrounded by massive vats, and stacks of hundred gallon
casks, all protecting and lending their flavor to the wine. Then, at the end
of the tour, I looked into the nearly black, ruby red of the wine, smelled
that unmistakable, sweet earthy aroma, and let the strong, intensely fruity
liquid slip down my throat, warming me all the way down. And so, I was
finally able to experience Port wine in the place where it came to be, in the
cellars of Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal.
I began visiting Portugal in the late 1990's. Having enjoyed Port
wine for many years, I looked forward to learning more about it, and the
tours of the Port lodges were an ideal means of doing so. I noticed that
several of the lodges had museums, and while I did visit them, I did not
think much about them at the time. As I began to my graduate studies in
the museum field, however, one shortcoming in museums overall captured
my interest: I realized that they tended to rather two-dimensional, rather
1
like an elaborate book. The most forward thinking museums, however,
are now trying to engage all the senses of their visitors, to create a more
resonant educational experience. As I came to understand this
phenomenon, I thought back to those Port wine lodge museums. The
lodges give visitors everything that most museums did not, a total sensory
experience, supplemented by tour guides' information, and culminated by
the intense sensation of drinking the wine, about which visitors had just
been learning. And so the question arose: if the experience they offer is so
enveloping and engaging, why did the Port wine lodges feel the need to
open museums at all?
In the nine years since my first visit to Portugal, the number of Port
wine lodge museums increased from three to eight, according to the
Association of Port Wine Companies. Given the close proximity of the
lodges to each other, within about two square miles in Vila Nova de Gaia,
across the river from Oporto, this growth seems significant. I determined,
therefore to understand the reasons for this increase, and to put the
phenomenon of Port wine museums within the larger sphere of cultural
tourism.
Museums worldwide in the 21st century are constantly seeking
innovative solutions to an ever thornier dilemma: how to get visitors in the
door. More and more, museums turn to the business world for examples
2
of how to market culture. Now, in an ironic reversal of this trend, one of
the oldest continuous business ventures in Western Europe, the Port wine
industry of Vila Nova de Gaia in Portugal, appears to be using museums,
or museum techniques, to help sell their fortified wine. This project seeks
to examine Port Wine company museums and displays in their role within
cultural tourism in the Porto area and the Douro Valley, where the wine is
produced, as well as through the lens of contemporary museum
interpretive techniques.
This study seeks to address the following questions:
• How does the Port wine industry fit within the cultural framework of the Porto and Douro Valley region?
• How do the Port wine companies define a "museum?"
• What do the companies hope to achieve by establishing museums
and/or mounting exhibits?
• How do museums and exhibits fit with traditional guided visits and wine tasting?
• How can museum exhibits and programs be more effectively
designed and executed, given individual companies' differing philosophies and available resources?
• How do the companies collaborate with each other to produce
effective tourism programming?
3
Cultural pride is also an unmistakable aspect of Port lodge tourism
programming. The industry has an extremely strong sense of tradition,
which even affects production decisions, such as the treading of grapes.
These companies are regional economic and cultural icons, whose affairs
are interwoven not only with the commercial world of Oporto, but even
more so with thousands of grapevine growers in the remote and intensely
rural upper Douro River valley. Therefore, in spite of increased corporate
mergers and globalization, the Port wine companies are intensely aware of
their historical position in their local region, and seek to transmit this
message with the same fervor that they promote the quality of their wines.
Museums can play a key role in the Port lodges' commercial and cultural
missions, providing extra value to the tourist experience in a unique way,
consistent with the individual character of their historic companies.
This study begins with a review of literature related to both
tourism and museums. The review examines cultural tourism as a
growing international phenomenon, in which travelers are seeking greater
value and intellectual challenge. Tour operators, like museums, have
discovered that tourists want even greater stimuli and more intense
experiences. As tourists pursue their own interests, niche tourism has
developed around such specific areas as wine, and many wineries now
4
depend on tourism for sales revenue, and museums can attract more
visitors.
Following a discussion of my methodology and its limitations, the
Findings chapter continues to probe my topic. It begins with information
on Portuguese wine tourism, gleaned from further reading, as well as
interviews with Port wine company tourism staff. Portugal has greatly
expanded its tourism infrastructure since the mid-1970's, and has
witnessed the same growth of museums experienced throughout Europe in
the same period. Numerous tourism routes have been established
throughout the country's numerous wine regions as well. The Port wine
lodges responded to this growth by opening their facilities to tourists in the
80's and later established museums to supplement these services. The
chapter continues by examining the historical and technical information
which forms the thematic basis for Port lodge tours and museums,
including company history, winemaking, aging processes, and the
different types of wine. The chapter concludes by examining first the
tours, and then the museums in each of the eight Port lodges selected for
this study.
The final chapter, Conclusions and Recommendations, finds that
the Port lodge tours and museums are very much a part of modern cultural
tourism and wine niche tourism, and notes that the companies are aware
5
of, and are addressing tourists' desires for new and unique experiences.
The lodge tours have been well developed within the industry, with the
help of the Association of Port Wine Companies as a coordinating body.
Museums, however, have developed rather more independently, each
displaying a unique style and format, varying from reception room
exhibits to elaborate dedicated spaces. Therefore, focusing finally on
museums exhibits, this chapter examines a number of desirable
characteristics for these facilities, and cites examples of good practice
from among the eight case study lodge museum.
The chapter concludes by recommending that the Port wine
companies establish a system of professional support for museum
activities, and include specific recommendations in their annual
evaluations by the Association of Port Wine Companies (AEVP). The
final product is a short proposal to the AEVP to make a formal
presentation in person of the findings of this study to the Port lodge
tourism staff as a first step in establishing professional museum
collaboration within the Port wine industry.
The eight Port wine lodges which I studied in this project are
thoroughly dedicated to communicating to their visitors about the quality
of their unique wine and its position in the culture and history of Oporto,
the Douro Valley and Portugal. I hope that this study will help these
6
companies fully develop the potential of their museums as means for the
education of their visitors, both as tourists and as future consumers of Port
wine. I further hope that through this study, wine museums, and other
commercial museums whose activities are interwoven with the cultural
history of their regions, will be encouraged to develop imaginative
exhibitions and programming for the enjoyment and education of their
visitors.
7
METHODOLOGY
Eight Port wine companies which have museums form the basis of
this study: C.W. Burmester, A.A. Cálem, Croft, A.A. Ferreira, W.& J.
Graham, A. Ramos Pinto, Sandeman, and Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman. I
initially identified these companies using the website maintained by the
Associação das Impresas de Vinho do Porto, or the Association of Port
Wine Companies. This website lists the member companies, indicating
what services are available to the visiting public, such as wine tastings,
guided visits and museums.i Initiated in 2002, it indicates that six of
eighteen certified Port wine cellars have museums. I then consulted an
evidently more recent pamphlet, distributed through the Oporto and Vila
Nova de Gaia tourist offices, which shows eight of fifteen listed cellars as
having museums.
Based on lectures and readings in the John F. Kennedy University
Museum Studies program, I developed a control definition for the term
"museum" as a point of comparison: a dedicated space, open to the public
at published times, established for some educational purpose, containing
displays of objects, i.e. images, documents and other physical artifacts,
and interpreted by accompanying text. The Port wine museums featured
in this study have other services and programs in common with museums
in general, such as guided tours, printed interpretive material for
8
distribution, websites and gift shops. However, these museums have two
unique characteristics: the majority of space included in visits is dedicated
to the aging of Port wine and the most abundant product for sale in their
gift shops is, quite naturally, their own wine.
My first task was to contact each of the Port wine cellars that were
certified by the Association of Port Wine Companies by email through
their "general inquiries" addresses during the first week of August 2007
(see appendix A for a list of companies and their websites). Due to the
lack of response to these initial inquiries, I began my onsite research of the
Port Wine company museums by visiting each of the certified cellars in
Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal twice over a three-week period, from the 6th
through the 24th of August 2007. I made another two-week trip in
November 2007. My purpose in making these visits was, first, to
familiarize myself with the cellars' tourist facilities in general; second, to
participate in the guided tours provided there, in order to ascertain the
nature of the themes addressed, and the style, i.e. how formal, informal or
interactive they were; third, to view the museum facilities of each cellar,
researching their size, exhibit style and organization, text presentation and
format, thematic scope, and use and interpretation of objects; and fourth,
to collect printed material available for distribution to the public, in order
to ascertain the importance of such materials to the companies and the
9
extent to which those materials serve educational and promotional
purposes.
My next step was to develop a questionnaire to distribute to each
of the companies (see appendix B). The open-ended questions were
designed to obtain the necessary information for my study, whether or not
interviews were conducted, and at the same time form the basis for
interviews as the opportunity arose. The initial questions were later
reduced in number, and divided into three sections. A further set of six
questions, covering only the most basic of information, was developed for
those contacts who did not wish to respond in depth. I conducted three in-
depth interviews, received one response to the seventeen-question survey,
and two responses to the six-question survey.
The first set of questions asks for background information on
museum programs. The second set, Visitor Services, addresses staffing and
training issues for guided tours, as well as tour thematic content, plus the
special aspect of wine tasting. The third and last set of questions, Tourism
Philosphy, is concerned with the mutual importance of the Port Wine
companies and regional cultural tourism to each other, admissions pricing
and visitor relations, and further inquires about the importance of
museum-type programming to the companies' marketing and tourism
activities, as well as the challenges of providing such services.
10
The three interviews provided key information to this study, for in
Portugal personal contact and relationships are valued as much than any
given outcome or product. Interviews were based on the full
questionnaire, but particularly on the more factual questions in the first
two sets, General and Visitor Services. Even though my correspondents
spoke English, the interviews were conducted in Portuguese to increase
their comfort level.
In addition to staff at Taylor's and Ramos Pinto, I interviewed the
promotional officer of one of the key organizations tying the Port Wine
trade and cultural tourism together in the Oporto area, the A.E.V.P.,
Associação das Impresas do Vinho do Porto, mentioned above. The
questions used mainly address the importance of the Port Wine industry to
the region, and the mutual importance of that trade and tourism, expanding
on any information regarding the origins and background of tourism, as
well as the importance and future of Port Wine company museums to
regional cultural tourism. Finally I conducted a literature review, focusing
mainly on the larger theme of cultural tourism and museums, as well as
the growth of wine tourism.
11
Limitations
Timing was a limiting factor to this study. My first research trip to
Portugal occurred during August of 2007. August is in Portugal, and in
Europe in general, the month when many people take their annual
vacations. Thus, when I initially contacted the Port wine companies by
email, I received only one response to my inquiries. I found that calling
the companies directly yielded far more accurate information as to which
personnel were responsible for museum activities, and would be available
for interviews. Even email contacts made subsequent to interviews were
frequently not responded to, and numerous follow-up telephone calls were
necessary to complete my research. Difficulty in establishing contacts
required me to make an additional trip to the area in November 2007 to
conclude my research.
A key limitation to this study is the fact that the subjects of my
research are commercial entities, companies doing business in a
competitive environment. There was some reluctance to answer policy
questions and divulge future plans in any detail. Perhaps due to the fact
that these companies are no longer independent entities, some parent
company staff were not informed about museum activities, while working
tourism staff were also reluctant to give details.
12
This project is not intended as an in depth analysis of Port wine
tourism, and is limited entirely to the eight Port wine lodges in Vila Nova
de Gaia whose tourism programming is certified by the AEVP, and which
indicated that they have museums. Furthermore, the issue of project
length did not allow me to analyze the company websites, many of which
contain educational information, or to interview visitors or conduct any
type of visitor survey. However, I was able to find information on overall
visitor satisfaction with tourism services of the case study Port lodges on
the AEVP's website. Overall, the narrow scope of this study, did not
allow me to explore in depth an industry that is at least 400 years old, and
is inextricably tied to the economic, political and social history of its
region.
The historical complexity of the topic is coupled with the fact that I
have conducted this study mainly in Portugal, frequently corresponding
and conducting interviews in Portuguese, which is not my first language.
The language issue aside, Portuguese culture is extremely subtle and
complex, and relationships are difficult to establish. Many of my
Portuguese friends and contacts have confirmed my impression that
Portugal's historical isolation and relative poverty, exacerbated by over
forty years of a fascist dictatorship, have resulted in a cultural self-
consciousness, about which I had to be extremely sensitive. In spite of
13
having attempted numerous contacts over a four-month period, problems
of geography, time, language and culture prevented my corresponding
with a greater breadth of tourism and Port wine company staff. Had more
input been available, my study would have been better able to ascertain
the reasons for the current museum formats in the industry, how senior
management view museums in their tourism programming, as well as
what future plans may exist for museum revision and expansion.
In addition, a comparative study of wine museums in other regions
of the world, for example the Napa Valley in California, would have
deepened this study. Unfortunately, such research was beyond the scope
of this study.
14
LITERATURE REVIEW
Museums in the Port wine lodges of Vila Nova de Gaia are a
relatively recent phenomenon, the first being established in the mid-
1990's. Therefore, as of this writing, no literature specifically addressing
these museums has been produced. It is the purpose of this review, then,
to establish the context for these museums within the wider realm of
cultural tourism.
Vila Nova de Gaia is inextricably linked to Oporto, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site, and the second largest city in Portugal. Not only
does Gaia lie a mere two hundred meters across the Douro River from
Oporto, it is home to nearly all the warehouses of the world's recognized
producers of Port wine. Visits to these caves, as they are known in
Portuguese, have been a major component to Oporto's regional tourism for
nearly twenty years - it is in fact the one specific group of tourist sites
mentioned by the tourist offices of both cities in their literature and
websites.
Museums of all types figure ever more prominently in cultural
tourism, just as tourists are increasingly recognized by museums as a
major market segment. Once cultural tourism has been defined and
examined, this chapter will cite selected literature to examine the place of
museums in tourism, both as cultural icons and visitor experiences. Wine
15
museums are a growing breed in general, and vineyards and other wine-
related facilities have begun to create their own museum exhibits.
Cultural Tourism
Cultural tourism is an ancient phenomenon, dating to at least
Roman times. Modern tourism has a beach-sitting, leisure-bound image,
yet it nearly always involves visiting historic and cultural sites, including
museums, and experiencing events such as festivals. Tourists must leave
their own home in order to travel, and by so doing remove themselves
from their own cultural environment and enter another. However, cultural
tourism has been seen as something unique, offering travelers a more
profound experience of other cultures and heritage.ii Some date the change
from travel into tourism to the mid-19th century, as travel "changed from
being an active experience to a passive one, from being dangerous to
being comparatively comfortable."iii Once the perquisite of the
aristocratic and wealthy, tourism is now a part of Western culture, and the
subject of mass marketing.
Culture is, in fact, the evidence of a people's assumptions, thoughts
and beliefs. This evidence appears in how they act, and further in what
they make. "Culture," notes one study, "is what we are committed to; each
of us can only have one culture, but we can be tourists in others."iv
16
Tourists seek to experience a culture through the senses, by participating
in tours and festivals, seeing monuments, and tasting the food in order to
draw nearer to a culture, without leaving their own. The Canadian
province of Ontario defines cultural tourism as "...visits by persons from
outside the host community motivated wholly or in part by interest in the
historical, artistic, scientific, or lifestyle/heritage offerings of the
community, region or institution."v This definition might in fact apply to
any travel that is not restricted to the confines of a resort or beach
community. Yet even Disneyland sells culture at the Epcot Center in
Florida, featuring numerous exhibitions of food, crafts and architecture
from around the world. Mexico as well, with its emphasis on beach
resorts, twinned the tourist hotel beach complex of Ixtapa, with the old
fishing village of Zihuatenejo, and markets visits to Mayan ruins in
conjunction with vacations to Yucatan resorts such as Cancun.
It is often the everyday world, as long as it contrasts with that of
the tourist, which serves as an attraction. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
refers to the "lifespace," an area where people actually live and work, the
authenticity of which is the main attraction. "The appeal of the lifespace
is its high resolution, its vividness and immediacy."vi This appeal explains
the continuing, even growing popularity of industrial tourism, in which
places of work, that were never intended to be viewed, become attractions.
17
"Whenever industrial society is transformed into modern society, work is
simultaneously transformed into an object of touristic curiosity. In every
corner of the modern world, labor and production are being presented to
sightseers in guided tours..."vii This process opens up places to tourists like
the Corning Glass factory and the New York Stock Exchange, that were
never available before. Tourists, who are alienated from their own work
and focused on leisure, seek a connection with this foreign reality.
"Many tourists want authenticity but not necessarily reality." They
travel with preconceptions based on limited knowledge of a cultural
reality, and while some look forward to being challenged, for most "travel
is about affirmation, not change."viii As a result there exists a tendency to
create sanitized versions of the past, or of work places for tourist
consumption. This process of "touristification" can blur the distinction
between the regular working world, and spaces set aside for tourists."ix
Nevertheless, tourism can add life or economic viability to institutions or
facilities whose function may be threatened, in effect subsidizing the
continuation of traditional activities.x
The attractions of the "life space" or live world, while fascinating,
tend to be scattered and difficult to access. Yet the main products of
cultural tourism are "enjoyable experiences" which can be easily
"consumed," so they must therefore be easily accessible.xi Urban areas are
18
typically more popular and heavily visited cultural tourism destinations
than rural areas, as they solve the problem of the diffusion of attractions.
Furthermore, within cities, tourist "districts" have formed, either by
design, skilled marketing, or the evolution of visitor interest. Examples
include San Francisco's Chinatown, Paris's Latin Quarter and Oporto's
Cais de Ribeira. Tourism is encouraged in industry literature, as areas and
sites are "recommended" or "suggested." This "filing system," in the
words of noted tourism scholar Dean McCannell, serves a world that is
"filled with people who are just passing through and they know it." xii
Museums and Cultural Tourism
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett writes that "Tourism needs
destinations, and museums are premier attractions. Museums are not only
destinations on an itinerary: they are also nodes in a network of attractions
that form the recreational geography of a region..."xiii Museums are
integral to historical and cultural areas, and they frequently orient the
visitor to a city or region. Furthermore, she goes on to say:
Museums have long served as surrogates for travel ... particularly ... before mass-tourism." "They have from their inception preserved souvenirs of travel, as evidenced in their collections of... examples of the arts and industries of the world's cultures. While the museum itself is an undrawn map ... the floor plan, which determines where people walk, also delineates conceptual paths through what becomes a virtual space of travel.xiv
19
Thus a visit to a museum continues the traveler's journey, and by
extension, elaborates it. Cultural tourism is a "value added industry."xv
Museums serve, by their unique collections, to augment the tourists'
experience, and offer opportunities, not available elsewhere, for them to
enter worlds different from their own.
Museums surely add to the attractiveness of a region or city. Greg
Richards notes that there was "a veritable museum explosion" all over
Europe during the 1990's. "Many...European regions have constructed
museums and heritage centers as means of attracting visitors to less
favored locations." He cites examples in Maastricht's Bonnefanten in the
Netherlands, and particularly the Guggenheim in Bilbao in northern Spain.
Richards further cites the examples of Tate Museum satellites in
Liverpool, and in St. Ives in Cornwall.xvi I would further add the example
of the Fundação Serralves in Oporto. Founded in 1996, this institution
houses a museum of contemporary art.
Article two of the 2001 International Council of Museums Statutes
defines a museum as follows:
...a non-profit making, permanent institution in the service of society and of its development, and open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits, for purposes of study, education and enjoyment, material evidence of people and their environment.
20
Subsequent articles in this document include institutions "of a museum
nature that acquire, conserve and communicate material evidence of
people and their environment."xvii However, how that communication is
received by the public is changing rapidly. Visitors want to be involved,
hence the growth of "adventure tourism, which the industry classifies as
active (doing). In this taxonomy, cultural attractions, including museums,
are passive (seeing)." It is now recognized that all classes of museum
visitors, including tourists, expect a complete experience. As
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett explains, "the term indexes an engagement of the
senses, emotions and imagination." xviii Museums mean many things to
different people: they can be "cathedrals" for the worshipping of culture;
or "a party, where great achievements and historic moments can be
celebrated." In fact museums are also attractions in the tourist economy,
"complete with cafés, shops, films, performances" in addition to their
exhibitions. Museums want to be viewed "as a place alive, exciting and
unique (my italics) - exactly what tourism markets."xix
Museums and Education
The International Council of Museums, as noted above, cites
collection, preservation and research as key museum functions, in addition
to education. It is however this last responsibility that is increasingly
21
paramount. Theodore Low, an educator at New York's Metropolitan
Museum of Art, wrote in 1942:
Briefly, the purpose and the only purpose of museums is education in all its varied aspects from the most scholarly research to the simple arousing of curiosity. That education, however, must be active, not passive, and it must always be intimately connected with the life of the people.xx
Low goes on to note that popular, rather than scholarly education, needs to
be the new focus of museums efforts in this field. He further decries the
"disproportionate amount of time and energy" devoted by museums to the
cultivation of the upper echelons of society, be they the wealthy or the
intelligentsia. His admonition reads: "What becomes of the vast majority
of the people? Are they not members of the public? Hasn't the museum a
definite duty toward them?"xxi Written in 1942, this passionate critique
has only been seriously heeded by museums since the mid-1990's. The
fiscal necessity of building attendance has compelled museums to reach
out, and the phenomenon of mass tourism has provided one way to attract
paying audiences.
As part of their marketing strategy, museums have been compelled
to learn about the audiences they intend to serve, and have begun to rely
on visitor surveys, as well as academic studies based on such surveys.
Understanding how people learn in museum environments, and under
22
what circumstances, has become a field of study. John Falk and Lynn
Dierking have developed the "contextual model of learning," consisting of
three overlapping contexts: "the personal, the sociocultural and the
physical," to which, subsequently, they have added "time."xxii Falk and
Dierking contend that the meaning which museum visitors take away with
them, is built up over time, and continually influenced by these factors.
Personal learning is based on motivation - how much they want to learn is
based on their interest and need to learn, and, may be based on "intrinsic
or extrinsic" factors. Intrinsic suggests that an activity is undertaken for
its own sake, while extrinsic is linked to rewards, such as good school
grades, or punishment, such as losing a promotion. Further factors include
freedom from anxiety and having some measure of control over their
learning.xxiii
The sociocultural model has many facets, but overall suggests that
learning develops through interaction with others, as a child with family,
through conversation and questioning, and later with both 'teachers' and
with fellow learners.xxiv One key ingredient of sociocultural learning is
the use of narrative. The telling of stories is essential in the transmission
of culture, whatever the format, be it myths, performance or poetry, as
well as prose.xxv Where learning takes place can have a profound effect on
its depth. The physical space, its "feel" and its accessibility, has a
23
psychological effect. More significant, appears to be a phenomenon called
"situated cognition," in which learning, and the ability to demonstrate the
result, may only be very successful in a formal teaching environment such
as school. For example, Falk and Dierking note that when competent
university science students are called upon to apply concepts in non-
academic settings, they cannot "transfer the principles they learn in these
courses to novel contexts."xxvi
It is therefore essential that museums continually refer to the needs
of their visitors when developing exhibits and programming. Visitors
want activities to be relevant, they want to be able to apply what they
learn, they want to be involved, not passive, and they want to be creative.
Greg Richards argues "that the growth of creative leisure and the rise of
skilled consumption means that heritage tourism and cultural tourism are
being increasingly supplanted by the advent of 'creative tourism.'"xxvii In
this new version of tourism, visitors are focused as much on the future as
on the past, and expect intense experiences. Thus, creative tourism "offers
visitors the opportunity to develop their creative potential through active
participation in active learning experiences."xxviii This shift to creative
tourism has prompted museums to change their roles from being
"'authoritarian factories of meaning' to being interactive workshops where
meaning is generated through co-makership between the museum and its
24
visitor."xxix
Enotourism - Wine Tourism
A growing facet of experience-based cultural tourism is in the
realm of visitation to wine industry facilities, be they vineyards,
winemaking installations or cellars used for aging wine. Catering to a
tourist market has proved beneficial to wine producers in a number of
respects. One study notes that "The move to wine tourism is driven by
desires to use wine tourism... building brand loyalty; increasing profit
margins; developing consumer marketing intelligence; providing
additional sales outlets; and heightening consumer awareness and
understanding of wine products."xxx By the late 1980's most American
wineries were relying on "tourist generated income" just to stay in
business, and even in France, wine sales "at the cellar door" had reached
twenty percent of total sales. One reason for this increased reliance on
tourism, is that direct sales to customers are considerably more cost
effective than the normal commercial channels involving wholesalers and
shippers.xxxi
The increasing benefits from wine tourism caused the French
governmental promotional organization, Maison de la France, to publish a
series of goals in 2000:
25
-To increase the number of tourists to wine tourism areas. -To increase tourism turnover. -To increase direct sales in the wineries. -To increase sales in wineries and their environment. (my italics) -To increase the reputation of the wine area.xxxii
By the mid-1990's, French promotional efforts had already led some wine
regions to invest heavily in infrastructure, "including museums, research
centers, restaurants, accommodations and workshops to create a distinct
market brand."xxxiii (My italics). However, Dean McCannell asserts that
overall, tourism has grown significantly faster than have the institutions
which support it. xxxiv French actions exemplify how one sector of the
industry can respond to both visitor and provider needs.
Wine tourism contributes in numerous significant ways to the
economy of a region. A Canadian study of British Columbia showed that
"non-resident wine tourists" placed high importance on social activity,
such as enjoying nightlife, restaurants and shopping, as well as visiting art
galleries and museums.xxxv Museums and other educational efforts on the
part of wineries can have long-term effects on visitation. For instance,
seasonality is certainly an issue in wine tourism, as in the tourism industry
in general. A 1999 New Zealand study noted that, while many tourists
preferred to visit wineries during the summer months, those tourists with a
greater knowledge of wine were more likely to visit throughout the year,
that percentage increasing with their level of knowledge.xxxvi The wine
26
industry, therefore, is likely to directly benefit from educating the
consumer through museum-like facilities.
Wine and Museums
Wine is an intriguing source for museum exhibits, serving as the
inspiration for countless works of art, as well as providing numerous
specialized artifacts. Howard Goldberg, museum critic for the New York
Times, writes in a 1993 survey of wine related material in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, that there should be no surprise in this phenomenon:
"From the birth of civilization, wine has stimulated personal and cultural
highs, as the fevered revels (chaperoned by Eros) on the Met's ancient
Greek pottery illustrate."xxxvii Goldberg notes that wine as a subject for
art, as well as artifacts, are so plentiful with the Met's permanent
collections, that no tour is necessary, and attentive visitors can easily sate
their interest in the subject. The "wine and food crowd" is the targeted
audience of this article, yet it is clear that the Met fully understands the
benefits of catering to that well-educated and discerning group.
The Metropolitan's restaurant is well regarded, and important to
the museum's brand and marketing. Goldberg even speculates that the
restaurant's key personnel have some influence over exhibit placement:
27
Did Frank O'Shea, who prepare the Met's wine lists, sweet-talk the department of Greek and Roman art? Is it coincidental that not long ago a second-century Roman statue of Dionysos, described as the 'god of wine and divine intoxication,' was positioned near the entrance to the first-floor restaurants?xxxviii
(Mr. Goldberg may be forgiven for forgetting the Roman name for the
wine god was Bacchus.) He further notes the availability of wine by the
glass and bottle in the Met's restaurants, as well as the gift shop offerings
of wine-related historic artifact reproductions. It is clear that wine sells in
the museum, both in the exhibition halls and the retail outlets.
Numerous exhibitions about wine have been staged in general
museums. One example is Gift of the Gods: The Art of Wine from the
Ancient World to Canadian Vineyards, put on by the Canadian Museum of
Civilization (CMC) in Gatineau, Quebec. It opened in November 2004
and ran for five months.xxxix The exhibition was adapted from the Royal
Ontario Museum's survey of European wine history and artifacts, and
funded by the Societé des Alcohols du Quebec, which further provided
publicity through retail efforts and promotional activities in government
liquor outlets. CMC's exhibition added a "New World" component,
starting with the French introduction of winemaking to Canada, and
bringing the story up to the present day, including the controversial
subjects of the temperance movement and prohibition. Designed for
enophiles and history enthusiasts alike, "...the exhibit offers a good study
28
in how to effectively recycle and extend the life of an older exhibit by
adding a new regional twist."xl
Entire museums dedicated to wine have been established,
independent of any particular winery operation. Arguably the most
spectacular, and commercial, effort undertaken in this regard is Vinopolis,
which opened in London in 1999.xli Occupying a massive 19th century
former wine warehouse in Southwark, Vinopolis (Greek for "city of
wine") features over 100,000 square feet of interactive exhibits, four
restaurants, wine tasting, not to mention the rotating art collection of
Napa Valley vintner Donald Hess, and a large retail complex offering
wine, books, and other wine-related merchandise. Wine regions from
throughout the world are featured, with some exhibits using almost theme-
park methodology: the Australian exhibit begins in a full-scale mockup of
an airliner, in which visitors watch an educational film before entering the
main display area. Expecting (at the time of opening) to pour over two
million wine samples a year to up to half a million visitors, Vinopolis is
considering opening branches in other cities, such as Tokyo (as of late
2007 this does not appear to have occurred). Tony Hodges, deputy vice
chairman of the Vinopolis board, asserts that: "The Vinopolis concept
works best in places that are crossroads of the wine trade."xlii Historically
and actually, London is certainly in that category, making Vinopolis a
29
prime example of a museum revitalizing, or certainly emphasizing a
region's traditional cultural or commercial role.
Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, opened
in Napa, California in 2002. Technically not a museum, Copia is more of
an enophile cultural center. The center struggled initially, both financially
and in regard to its educational mission, but in recent years may be finding
its way. Currently, Copia offers wine and food related lectures and
workshops nearly very day of the week. Copia is another example of a
cultural facility augmenting the tourist value of an area, and furthermore
acting as a nucleus to further tourism development.
Museums in Wineries
The existence of museums incorporated into active winemaking
facilities is not a new phenomenon. While it might be expected for such
exhibitions to have been established in France, Italy and Germany,
countries long associated with winemaking, immigrants from those
countries have made their mark in the New World. One example is the
Mendoza region of Argentina, settled in the 19th century by Italian
immigrants. Situated near the foot of the Andes mountains, across the
country and due west of Buenos Aires, this area has become one of the
major wine regions in the country, featuring dozens of vineyards. One of
30
these is Bodega La Rural. While the winery was founded in the 1880's, the
owner established El Museo del Vino San Felipe in 1945, "where the most
important elements of Mendoza winemaking history would be housed
under one roof." xliii
The wine museum of Bodega Rural is described as addressing both
the past, as well as "...the latest technical advances (which), in reality, are
based on mechanical principles older than we can imagine."xliv It is clear
that this museum, while honoring the past, is just as interested in
interpreting the La Bodega winery as a viable and functioning modern
commercial enterprise. The museum while detailing the process of
industrialization, strives as well to emphasize the regional quality of its
wineries and wine. In addition to La Bodega's own collection, a large
array of winemaking equipment was collected from other wineries in the
region, and is displayed according to function, in order to demonstrate
evolution in design.xlv
According to a report in the wine column of the Buenos Aires
Herald in 1983, the museum has "...done a wonderful job of piecing
together what our wine industry was and has gone through. Gathered
together under the roof of the winery itself, much of it mixed together with
the present and active elements of the wine making process, the museum
is a wonderful reflection of how far we have come from the days of the
31
pioneers of our industry."xlvi The museum at Bodega la Rural serves to
preserve the memory of a wine industry and culture in the face of rapid
modernization, yet further emphasizes the validity and viability of the
contemporary commercial enterprise. Furthermore, this establishment is
not engaged in self-aggrandizement, but seeks to interpret and promote
the entire region.
Worlds away in distance, time and concept is one of the newest
winery museums, El Museo de la Cultura del Vino (The Museum of Wine
Culture), in the Rioja wine producing region of northern Spain. Opened
by the Vivanco family, fourth generation vintners and owners of the
Dinastia Vivanco, in 2004, the museum is home to over 6,000 objects, as
well as an art collection, a restaurant, and Bacchus' Garden, containing
over 200 grape varieties from around the world.xlvii The idea for the
museum was formed during the owner's travels, inspired particularly by
visits to other wine museums: "de crear un museo propio, pionero en La
Rioja, en el que los visitantes pudieran comprender mejor el proceso de
elaboración del vino y la trascendencia cultural de este producto a lo
largo de los siglos" (to create his own museum, the first in Rioja, in which
visitors could better understand the winemaking process, and the cultural
preeminence of this product over the centuries).xlviii
32
The museum complex occupies about 30,000 square feet, and
includes six exhibit halls, an archive, plus a cafeteria, tasting room and gift
shop. The varied collection is labeled in both Spanish and English, and
includes Picasso's painting Homage to Bacchus, as well as wine related
objects both artistic and practical, some dating to the 13th century B.C.E.
Audiovisual displays interpret wine history and production, as well as
cooperage, and the unique combination of climate and soil that gives wine
its character. Another theater shows films with wine-related themes, such
as Zorba the Greek, while an interactive exhibit for the senses features
spices and other flavors detectable in wine, which visitors can smell.xlix El
Museo de la Cultura del Vino may be more elaborate and technologically
sophisticated than the much older Argentine San Felipe, yet both
museums seek to bring alive the culture surrounding wine in general, as
well as the wines they produce, and particularly the regions where it is
grown and made.
The wine industry in Italy has been going through challenging
times, as demand for its product has dwindled, falling about ten percent in
the first few years of the new millenium. Competition from more recently
popular, and less expensive wines, from Chile and Australia for example,
are forcing Italians to market their product as something unique, tied to the
land, and obtainable nowhere else, saying in effect "you are buying Italian
33
culture in a bottle."l Fatori dei Barbi, a winery in Montalcino, Tuscany
which specializes in the variety Brunello di Montalcino, has confronted
this issue by creating a museum, which opened in November 2004. It is a
modest effort, focusing mainly on the daily life of the people in the region.
According to the winery's owner, Stefano Colombini: "What we want to
show is the connection between the wine, the territory and this culture.
Brunello was created here by these people, who wore these dresses, who
used these tools. Brunello cannot exist without them."li
Colombini also expresses his concern over the growing number of
tourists, (some 50,000 per year), and particularly the influx of non-Italians
who have bought wineries in the area: "Now our problem is to save the
tradition and character of our community and to share our culture with the
newcomers. We want them, but we want them to be a part of our culture."
Amassing the museum's collection became a community effort, as
residents "scoured their attics" for over 10,000 vintage photographs of
Montalcino, entire contents of regional houses as well as the tools and
equipment of the region's workers, including winemakers. Colombini
hopes to make clear to outsiders, whether they be tourists or new residents,
that Brunello culture, and its wine, are unique: "You can produce a superb
cabernet anywhere...but you can't produce this wine somewhere else."lii
34
Summary
The goal of this discussion has been to place the museums of the
Port wine companies in Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal within an overall
context of cultural tourism. Along with giving tourists greater value for
the limited time they may spend in a given area, cultural tourism
encourages the preservation of industries, and other cultural practices.
Museums add further value by augmenting touristic offerings, and provide
a greater educational experience by shedding light on a region's history
and culture. Museums, like the tourist industry in general, are increasingly
offering more vivid experiences to visitors.
Wine tourism is a subset of cultural tourism. Great importance is
attached by wineries and related establishments to both preserving the
history and culture of wine, and making tourists aware of the contribution
of wine to world and regional culture. The wine industry, however, has a
further commercial mission which, naturally, is to sell wine. Indeed, this
is an advantage that wineries and cellars have over many other tourist
facilities: visitors can buy and literally consume the result of thousands of
years of cultural effort. The wine industry is concerned about educating
consumers, for if consumers perceive little difference in wines, why
should they buy a particular brand? Therefore, many wineries and cellars
35
are turning increasingly to the museum as medium of both cultural
preservation and creating an educated consumer.
36
FINDINGS
This chapter is divided into four sections. The first addresses
Portuguese wine tourism, particularly the Port wine sector. Portuguese
wine tourism is considered in terms of its quite recent development, due to
the low international profile of its wine industry, and how it is now being
considered a major part of the nation's cultural scene. Recent events, such
as Portugal's hosting of the 2004 European football (soccer)
championships, have further spurred tourism development, particularly in
its wine sector. The establishment of tourism routes through wine
growing areas, as well as the continued growth of museums related to the
industry, provide evidence of the touristic importance of the wine industry,
and the commitment of Portugal to its promotion.
The second section, Port Lodge Interpretation, presents the
historical and technical background material which forms the interpretive
basis of Port wine lodge tours and museums. The thematic areas consist
of historical background of the region, industry and the companies; wine
grapevine growing and winemaking; and the characteristics of the
different basic varieties of Port wine. These last two areas form the bulk
of Port lodge interpretive efforts, contributing to a better-informed
consumer base.
37
The third and fourth sections of the Findings chapter, address
museological activities undertaken by the eight case study Port wine
lodges in question. Tours are considered first in this chapter, because they
serve as the main interpretive activity of the Port lodges. These tours are
described in this section as a thematic whole, rather than each lodge's tour
being described individually, because the themes addressed by nearly all
the tours are similar. However, where the format of a particular lodge's
tour varies significantly, those differences are highlighted.
Portuguese Wine Tourism
Since the early 20th century, guidebooks have described Port wine
and the industry that produces it, yet the narrative takes the form of a
historical sidebar, rather than a potential tourist experience. The 1929
Blue Guide to southern Spain and Portugal devotes nearly as much space
to the Port wine trade, its history and product, as it does to the history of
Oporto itself. Yet this guide makes clear that experiencing the lodges is
not on the standard tourist track: "...the visitor to Oporto should secure an
introduction to one of the British shippers, so as to have an opportunity to
visit one of the Wine Lodges..."liii The 1959 Baedeker guide to Spain and
Portugal is even more succinct, briefly mentioning the sight of the Barcos
de Rabelo tied up along the Oporto waterfront, the number of active Port
38
wine companies and the names of a few. The lodges do not appear at all
among the featured tourist sights.liv In fact, wine tourism in Portugal,
whether Port related or not, does not seem to impact the industry much
until the 1980's, when most of the Port wine lodge opened to visitors.
By 2000, tourism was well established in the lodges, featuring
tours and wine tasting, as well as the first museums. While the lodges are
located in Vila Nova de Gaia, across the Douro River, the Port wine
industry and its tourism facilities feature prominently in Oporto's official
tourist literature: in fact, Port has its own web page in Oporto's site.lv
Several 2007 commercial tour guides to Portugal list the Port lodges as
one of the major sights in Oporto. The Michelin Green Guide simply lists
the lodges as a single site among many others, and Fodor's gives them a
highlighted, half-page section under Oporto. Fodor's further suggests that
tourists consider a wine tasting tour in the Douro Valley.lvi While not
mentioning other wine tourism options, the Rough Guide, which is
designed for younger tourists, devotes two full pages to Vila Nova de Gaia
and the Port wine lodges, including a half-page map of the lodges'
locations. This guide also feature a four page, full-color section devoted
to Port wine, giving a brief history, a description of the Douro Valley, as
well as a description of the wines and the best lodges to tour.lvii
39
In 1996, the IVDP, Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (Douro
and Porto Wine Institute, the government Port wine quality control entity),
established the Rota do Vinho do Porto (Port Wine Route). Focused on
the Douro Valley, rather than Oporto, tourists have opportunities at 54
sites to meet winemakers, as a well as taste and purchase wines, and
furthermore participate in harvesting and even treading the grapes. In
addition, the IVDP maintains the Solares do Vinho do Porto, in effect
elegant, pan-company tasting rooms, in Lisbon, Oporto and Regua, and in
the Douro Valley. The IVDP also supports the Museu do Douro, a
Ministry of Culture concern, which acts as an umbrella for cultural and
archeological sites throughout the region, as well as the Côa Archeological
Park in the Douro Superior region.lviii
The national version of the IVDP is the Instituto da Vinha e do
Vinho (Institute of Vines and Wine), which promotes a network of eleven
wine tourism routes throughout Portugal, including that of Port wine.
Sixteen wine museums, including that of Sandeman (1992) and Oporto's
Museu do Vinho do Porto (2004), are listed with their contacts and
hours.lix Wine routes were particularly promoted in the lead up to the
European football championships held in Portugal in 2004, as many
tourism infrastructure projects were undertaken during that period. It is
difficult to overestimate the effect of the Euro 2004 on the European
40
image of Portugal, stemming from both the well-run events and improved
tourist facilities.
The Associação das Empresas do Vinho do Porto (AEVP), the
non-profit Association of Port Wine Companies, was founded in 1975 for
"a promoção e defesa da Indústria e Comércio do Vinho do Porto" (the
promotion and protection of the industry and commerce of Port wine).lx
The Association publishes and places promotional literature in tourist sites
such as hotels throughout the region, and produces way-finding signs in
sites like Gaia. The AEVP also encourages cooperation among the
member companies in the realms of promotion and visitor services.
According to Ema Pinto, the Promotional Officer for the AEVP, the Port
wine lodges now (2007) receive about 600,000 visitors a year. Those
along the more frequented Douro riverfront district receive the bulk of
visitation: Cálem welcomes about 100,000 tourists a year, while
Sandeman and Ferreira expect about 80,000 each. Graham's, probably the
furthest lodge up the hill from the river, does not rely on foot traffic, but
actively works with tourist agencies to increase visitation to about 70,000
annually.lxi
Two factors greatly affected the development of Port wine lodge
tourism facilities. Portugal, after languishing under the Salazar
dictatorship for over forty years, only re-established itself as a democratic
41
nation in 1974. Prior to that year, tourism was not a government priority,
and business innovation was actively discouraged. Furthermore,
according to a source in the industry who wished to remain anonymous,
the Port wine trade has always been a close-knit society, and management
was reluctant to open the lodges to the public. Warre's, the oldest English
company (1670), was evidently an exception, as they opened their doors in
the 1960's.lxii Even to this day, some company managers often do not
recognize the importance of tourism to the industry. Nevertheless, the
lodges began welcoming visitors in the 1980's, and nearly all were
available for tours by the mid-1990's.lxiii
Despite the pockets of reluctance, within many companies tourism
is considered by Port wine lodge public relations and visitors center
personnel to be extremely important to the industry, particularly in
marketing sense. Ana Filpa Correia, director of Ramos Pinto's archives
and museums, asserts that: "The reception of tourists, whether in the
lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia or in the quintas of the Douro, is fundamental
to Ramos Pinto, because it the only form by which the company can
directly contact the public who form its clientele."lxiv The Port wine
industry itself is also "fundamental" to the cultural tourism of Oporto and
the Douro Valley regions, particularly to Oporto, where its importance is
"dramatic," according to Ana Margarida Morgado of Taylor's public
42
relations department.lxv Tourism and the Port wine industry are now
inextricably linked in both the commercial and cultural sense: the wine is a
well-known product throughout the world, while its production and
facilities are considered emblematic of Portugal and the Douro region.
Museums began to be a part of lodge tourism facilities in the
1990's, beginning with Sandeman in 1992. Burmester evidently had a
museum by this time as well, though its contents were removed to the
Douro Valley by its owners, the Amorim group, prior to its sale to
Sogevinus after 2000. Ferreira also had established a museum by the end
of the millenium, and Ramos Pinto opened theirs in 2002. This tallies
with the Association of Port Wine Companies (AEVP) tourist map of that
year, which shows three lodges having museums. By 2004, however,
fully eight Port wine lodges are indicated by the AEVP as having
museums.lxvi
Port Lodge Interpretation
The historical and technical material covered in this section is
addressed in the tours, museums, and literature of the Port wine lodges,
and forms the interpretive backbone of the lodges' visitor services. While
different lodges will place greater or lesser emphasis on the history of the
industry and their companies, nearly all present the same information on
43
the technical aspects of grape growing, winemaking and aging in a similar
fashion and in the same order. This section thus covers information
common to all companies under general thematic headings, such as
History or Winemaking. However, at the end of the History section, a
brief history of each company will be given to highlight the recent
phenomenon of corporate consolidation.
History: Origins
Debate still continues over the origins of Oporto and Vila Nova de
Gaia, its sister city on the south banks of the Douro River. Archeological
evidence points to a Roman fort, called Castrum Cale (fort of Cale), on
the bluffs to the east of present day Gaia, while there is some consensus
that Portus Cale (port of Cale), lay across the river. Cale may well be a
variation of Gale, the Latin name for the Celtic population of the area. By
the end of the first millennium, the Douro River was the southern border
with the Moorish dominated portion of the Iberian penninsula, thus the
settlement south of the Douro was abandoned, while that on the north
became know as Portucale. As the Moors were driven south, Dom
Alfonso Henrique declared independence in the 12th century from León,
the dominant Christian power on the peninsula. As the name of the major
city in the region, Portucale was chosen as the name of the new nation,
44
and Portugal was born. A new town was built by the old Castrum Cale,
and was named Vila Nova de Gaia, the "new town" of Gaia.lxvii
The north of Portugal has been a wine growing region at least since
Roman times, and there is archeological evidence of a winery dating from
those times in the area of Régua, in the heart of the Douro River Valley
Port wine growing region. However, while wine exports from the region
date to the middle ages, Port wine, as it is known today, did not develop
until the 17th century, due largely to demand from England. English
involvement in Portugal dates to the crusades during the Middle Ages, as
both mercenaries and other troops were convinced to help combat the
Moors. By the middle of the 13th century, the southern end of the
country, the Algarve, was taken, and since then "Portugal's borders have
since survived virtually intact, making them among the oldest on the
continent of Europe."lxviii
England, while fighting the French during the Hundred Years War,
joined Portugal fighting Castille, who were allied with France. Further
conflicts led to the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, considered the oldest
alliance between two nations, and the later marriage of Philippa of
Lancaster, niece of the English king, to King João I of Portugal. The next
economic step in this relationship was the trade for English codfish in
exchange for Portuguese wine, which continued unabated through the 17th
45
century. English merchants were made even more powerful by treaties
with Portugal, in exchange for help against the Spanish and Dutch, and in
1662, Charles II married Catherine of Bragança, sister of the Portuguese
king, thus cementing their "special status."lxix
The origins of Port wine date to a trade conflict between England
and France beginning in the 1660's. France had stopped importing
English wool cloth, and England responded by banning French imports,
including wine. Though the English has always displayed a marked
preference for Bordeaux wines, after war began with France merchants
turned to Portugal for the bulk of their wine. However, as opposed to the
one to two day journey from Bordeaux, the voyage from Portugal took
much longer and the wines did not survive the journey well. It was the
addition of brandy to the wine, thus "fortifying" it, that made the wine
more robust, creating what is now known as Port. While fortifying wine
may have been practiced for years in the Benedictine abbeys of the Douro
Valley, it was commonplace by 1700.lxx
Two dates are key to the history of Port wine. The first is 1703,
the year in which the Meuthen Treaty was signed, lowering duties on
Portuguese wine in exchange for preferred importation of English cloth.
This treaty survived for over 150 years, allowing the Port wine trade to
fully develop. The other key date is 1756. Increased demand, and a lack
46
of controls, led the quality of wine to decline for a number of years in the
early 18th century, with shippers and customers complaining of a bad,
adulterated product, mixed with other fruits, juices and spices. Due to this
decline, among other factors, the Portuguese prime minister, the Marquês
de Pombal, created the Real Companhia das Vinhas do Alto Douro (the
Royal Company of Vineyards of the Upper Douro), to regulate the quality,
production and prices of the wine. Over the next several years, the region
of the upper Douro River valley was delineated, and only vineyards within
the designated boundary were permitted to produce Port wine. While
expanded over the years, the Douro valley is considered practically the
oldest demarcated wine-growing region in the world.lxxi
The 19th century saw an overall growth in the Port wine trade, in
spite of two catastrophic events. The first was invasion by the French
during the Napoleonic Wars (1807-1811). As a long time ally of England,
Portugal was particularly subject to Napoleon's expansionist ambitions,
and while the entire economy suffered, English interests were particularly
targeted. Oporto was only occupied for a few months, but the long-term
effects of the war were exacerbated by the power vacuum left by the royal
family, who had fled to Brazil. A long period of unrest and outbreaks of
civil war followed, based on conflict between traditional absolutists and
47
those supporting a constitutional monarchy, the latter prevailing in
1834.lxxii
Nature struck a double blow in the mid-19th century. A powdery
mildew, called oidium, attacked the grapes in the Douro Valley in the
1850's. Apparently arriving from North America, this mildew imparted a
bitter taste to the grapes, and while the Port shippers continued to do well,
due to large harvests, thousands of small wine growers in the region were
devastated. While oidium was finally controlled through the application
of sulphur, increased steamship traffic from America in the mid-1860's
would import an even worse plague: phylloxera. This practically
microscopic aphid spread throughout Europe, feeding on the vines' roots
and killing the plants. No remedy has ever been found, and it wasn't until
the last decades of the 19th century, that native vines were grafted onto
American rootstock, which had already been exposed to the plague and
was now more resistant. While extensive replanting has taken place over
the years, thousands of abandoned terraces, known as mortórios, still give
mute testimony to the devastation (See appendix D).lxxiii
History: the Companies
The eight companies studied for this project began as wine
shippers and marketers. Even today, though these companies all own
vineyards in the Douro Valley, they continue to buy grapes from local
48
producers in the area of their own holdings.lxxiv Until the mid-19th
century, almost all wines were shipped overseas in pipas, or ca. 100-gallon
casks, and bottled at the destination, particularly in England. Since the
late 18th century, aging has taken place in the company cellars near the
mouth of the Douro River. Originally in Oporto, most companies had
moved to Vila Nova de Gaia by 1800, partially to avoid taxes levied by
the Bishop of Porto, and also to take advantage of the north facing slopes
of Gaia, which made for cooler aging conditions. Many companies began
bottling operations in Gaia in the 19th century, though the last bulk
shipment was made as late as 1996.
The original, family owned companies considered in this study
have all merged or been absorbed by larger, sometimes multinational
concerns, though each original company still maintains its own lodge and
aging facilities. To avoid repetition, a brief history of each will appear
after that of their parent company. The eight case study companies are
arranged in same alphabetical order as they appear elsewhere in this study,
beginning with Burmester and concluding with Taylor's.
Sogevinus, one of the largest Port wine concerns in Portugual, is
owned by the Spanish Galician bank Caixa Nova. This group, which
markets itself as representing "Five Centuries of Wine," owns a number of
49
Port wine companies, including Burmester, Cálem, Kopke and Barros, all
of which have distinguished histories.
Founded as a grain trading company in London in 1730,
Burmester joined the wine trade in Oporto in 1750, where the family
became active in British community and financial circles. In spite of
setbacks during the Napoleonic Wars and World War I, the company
maintained a reputation for quality that persists in the 21st century.
Burmester shares production with Cálem from the same vineyard , the
grade "A" Quinta do Arnozelo.lxxv
Cálem was founded in 1859 and focused initially on the Brazilian
market, thereby avoiding direct competition with more established
companies. The demand for exotic hardwoods was high in Europe, and
the company's founder, Antónia Álves Cálem used Port wine as medium
of exchange. The company was one of the few to own its own fleet of
merchant vessels to transport wine overseas, and since the 1950's, the
caravela, a 17th century sailing ship, has been its brand logo.lxxvi
Croft, founded in 1678, is the third oldest Port wine company still
operating, and the second oldest British company, after Warre's. John
Croft took over the company in 1736, and quickly became a leading figure
in the Port wine trade, writing a treatise in 1788 that has become a
standard work on the subject: The Wines of Portugal. While the firm has
50
not been in the Croft family since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, it
established a serendipitous relationship with its future owners the
Fladgates in the mid-19th century. The Croft company acquired John
Fladgate's Quinta da Roeda in 1875, when the owner married Fladgate's
daughter. Nearly 130 years later, the Fladgate Partnership bought both
Croft and it's "A" rated vineyard.
Another large wine concern is the Portuguese conglomerate
Sogrape, founded in 1942 by Fernando van Zeller Guedes. The family-
owned concern currently maintains over 2000 acres of vineyards in the
main winegrowing regions of Portugal and Argentina. Sogrape entered
the Port wine trade in 1987, acquiring the venerable Portuguese house of
A.A. Ferreira (1751), while the famous English firm of Sandeman (1790)
joined the group in 2002. Two other old English Port wine firms, Offley
and Robertson, are also members of the group.
A.A. Ferreira is the oldest Portuguese Port wine company,
predating even the demarcation of the Douro Valley. The history of this
company is indelibly marked by Dona Antónia Ferreira, who, widowed in
the mid-19th century at age 33, took over the business with vigor. She
was responsible for founding a number of vineyards, which are not only
still active in the 21st century, but well-known for their quality, such as
the Quinta do Porto, which she bought in 1863.lxxvii
51
The Symington Family Estates is one of two major English family
owned concerns. While the first Symington did not come to Porto until
1888, through marriage the family has roots in the region, stretching to the
17th century. Andrew Symington arrived in 1888, and it was to his
descendents that Warre's, a company in which he had been a partner, was
sold in the late 1950's. The Symingtons were also partners in the Dow
(1798) Port wine company for years, before acquiring it in 1961.
In 1970, the family acquired Graham's (1820), which was then
family owned. Graham's was a relative latecomer to the English Port wine
trade, founded in 1820 by two brothers with already extensive trade
interests in both their native Scotland and in India. The company did well
throughout the 19th century, culminating with the purchase in 1890 of the
well-regarded (currently "A" rated) Quinta dos Malvedos in the Upper
Douro Valley, and at the same time, the construction of a large new lodge
in Gaia, still in use today. In addition to a tradition of quality Vintage
Ports, still tread in stone lagares, Graham's is one of two companies which
have pioneered mechanical means for duplicating the human treading of
the grapes after harvest.lxxviii
One of the most successful Portuguese companies, Ramos Pinto
maintains its independent operations, in spite of its 1990 merger with the
French champagne producer Roederer. The company was founded in
52
1880 by the young art connoisseur Adriano Ramos Pinto, and like Cálem,
focused its early marketing efforts on Brazil. Adriano used his artistic eye
to focus on marketing, employing well-known artists to create advertising
posters of exceptional quality. He furthermore countered the staid image
of the Port industry by introducing a distinctly sexual overtone to his
advertising, featuring images of nude female figures and slogans such as
Os Vinhos do Porto de A. Ramos Pinto são uma tentação ("The Port wines
of A. Ramos Pinto are a temptation").lxxix Ramos Pinto was also one of
the first companies to bottle its own wines for shipment.lxxx Also, between
1919 and 1985 the company acquired four quintas, or vineyards in the
Douro Valley, including the archeologically rich Quinta da Evramoira,
prompting their founding one of the few vineyard-related museums in
region.
Founded by George Sandeman in 1790, Sandeman's is arguably
the most recognizable English Port wine company, due to innovative
marketing dating to the 1920's. The Sandeman Don, a sombrero-wearing,
black-caped figure, has been the company symbol since 1928. While
Sandeman purchased the "A" rated Quinta do Vau in 1988, grapes from
that vineyard had been used in their wines for years. The company was
bought by Canada's Seagram company in 1980, in the first wave of
53
multinational takeovers, before joining Sogrape in 2002, though it is still
managed by George Sandeman, namesake of the company's founder.lxxxi
Finally, Taylor, Fladgate and Yeatman is one of the few modern
examples of a Port wine company becoming parent to other companies,
led by family members who began in the trade in the 19th century. The
Fladgate Partnership was formed by the merging of Taylor's with Fonseca
Guimarãens, and subsequently Croft and Delaforce, acquired from the
Guiness company in 2001. However, all four companies operate
independent vineyards and aging facilities in order to maintain their
distinctive "house styles."
Taylor's was founded in 1692, and has owned vineyard property
in the Douro Valley since 1744. In more recent times, Taylor's pioneered
the offering of a dry white Port in the 1930's, unusual, given the sweeter
character of most white Ports. Furthermore, in an effort to market to the
restaurant trade during the 1970's, the company successfully marketed a
Late Bottled Vintage wine.lxxxii Like a few of the better regarded
companies, Taylor's grapes used for their higher quality wines are still
tread by human feet, yet the company has also pioneered mechanical
replication of this process.
Terroir: the Douro
54
Terroir, a French term with no English equivalent, encompasses all
of the environmental conditions necessary to grow wine: geology and soil,
geography and topography, as well as climate. The terroir of the Douro
River valley is unique (See appendix C for images of the Douro Valley).
First, its location over 100 kilometers upriver from the Atlantic Ocean,
places it in the shelter of the mountain range, Serra do Marão, "protecting"
the wine growing region from the moderating influence of Atlantic winds.
Thus the climate is harsh, with freezing winters, and summer temperatures
reaching over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. These extreme conditions make for
extremely rugged vines.
The topography varies from hilly to mountainous, creating two
conditions: optimum exposure to the sun on south facing slopes, and
historically, the necessity of building steep, terraced vineyards. Schist, the
slate-like rock which comprises the soil, had to be broken up by hand, and
dumped into socalcos, schist walls following the contour of the hills. The
roots of the vines have to stretch down sometimes to 25 meters to reach
water, thereby increasing their strength. Furthermore, the rocky soil
protects the roots from climatic extremes, absorbing heat slowly during
the day, then allowing it to dissipate slowly among the roots at night, vital
during the bitter winter cold. The rocky soil also allows for efficient
drainage. The result is not just a technical success, but a cultural icon.
55
Hundreds of years human activity has physically altered the region, due to
the construction of this extensive terracing to grow the vines, which led
the United Nations to declare the "Alto Douro Wine Region" a UNESCO
World Heritage Site in 2001.lxxxiii
Sub-Regions of the Douro
The Demarcated Region of the Douro is divided into three
subregions, starting about 100 kilometers east of Oporto (See appendix C
for maps of the Douro region). The Baixa Corgo, or that area down river
from where the Rio Corgo enters the Douro, is the smallest and
westernmost region, as well as the most productive, having nearly 30
percent of its 45,000 hectares (over 110,000 acres) under cultivation. The
Cima Corgo, above the Rio Corgo, has over twice as much area, but only
about 18 percent under cultivation. The easternmost sub-region is the
Douro Superior, stretching the rest of the way to the Spanish Border.
While nearly 20 percent larger than the Cima Corgo, just over seven
percent is planted.lxxxiv The Baixo Corgo, because it has the moistest and
mildest climate of the region, and the most fertile soil, accounts for its
productivity. The grapes there mature more slowly, so wines expected to
be sold young, such as Rubies, Tawnies and Whites are mainly produced
in this region. The Cima Corgo, where most important quintas are
located, is considered to have the best balance of rain and hot weather, and
56
the highest quality wines are produced there. The Douro Superior is
hotter and drier still, producing intensely flavored grapes. This quality,
when coupled with the flatter terrain, more conducive to mechanization,
has led to considerable experimentation, which is influencing production
in the other sub-regions.lxxxv
The quinta, many of which are not much larger than an acre, is the
agricultural unit upon which Port wine production is based, with each
company relying on dozens of suppliers. In modern times, each well-
known company also maintains larger, flagship properties, many so well-
regarded that wines from a single quinta can be much sought after. The
characteristics of a quinta's terroir vary so widely, that to create a
particular style of wine requires careful blending of their produce.
Therefore, the Port Wine Institute has created a system of classification,
ranging from "A" to "F," based on a number of factors: altitude, higher
being better; production, lower being better; soil composition; and the
location, in which exposure to the sun plays a particularly important part.
Further points are based on the age of the vines, older is better; and
inclination, the steeper the terrain, the better.lxxxvi
Unique to Port wine are the varieties of grapes, or castas, from
which it is made. Without exception, the over thirty varieties of grapes
used to make Port are either native to Portugal, or have been a part of its
57
agricultural landscape for so long, that they are currently only in use there.
Of the over twenty varieties permitted by the Port Wine Institute for
making red Port wines, only five are highly recommended: Touriga
Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Tinto Cão, Touriga Francesa and Tinta Barroca. Its
particularly intense flavor makes the Touriga Nacional, arguably, the most
highly regarded of all, in spite of its small grapes and low yield. Port
wine, however, cannot be made from one grape variety. It is the careful
blending of several varieties which give the wine its complexity. Each
type of Port will have a different blend, depending on how long it is
expected to age, as well as the location of the vines. One grape variety
can vary considerably in flavor, depending on the conditions of the terroir.
White Port is a relatively recent development, and while there is less
concern within the industry over its blending, again only about five of the
available white grape varieties are recommended as optimum by the IVP,
including the well-regarded and aromatic Malvasia Fina, and the ancient
Códega.lxxxvii
Winemaking
Like most wines, Port wine grapes are harvested in September, a
period called the vindima in Portuguese. This work is still done by hand,
as it is throughout the world, to preserve the grape intact, and thus its
juice, until pressing. Transported to the winery originally by ox-carts,
58
now by tractors, and dumped into large tanks for crushing, sometimes with
or without stems attached. Traditionally, these tanks, or lagares, were
constructed of granite, and the crushing was undertaken by the men who
picked the grapes. This process, the pisa, still persists in the industry,
partly for tradition's sake, and partly because in the opinion of many
experts, no machine can duplicate the pressure of the human foot, which
will not crush the grape seeds, which would add a bitter flavor. While
machinery has now been developed that is comparable, many companies
still use the pisa nos lagares, for their highest quality wines. Arms
interlocked, men (and now women) march rhythmically through the
grapes in four-hour shifts, often to a drumbeat or other traditional music.
The juice is then run off, while the remaining skins are pressed by
machine, and that juice added. The brief fermentation process takes place
in vats made of stone, concrete or stainless steel, which will not affect the
juice's flavor. After about two to three days, during which fermentation
and sugar content is measured, occurs the pivotal act in the Port
winemaking process, fortification, in which one part clear, strong wine
brandy is added to four parts most or new wine. This 77 percent alcohol
brandy stops the fermentation process, the transformation of sugar into
alcohol, completely, leaving a strong, sweet and fruity base wine. The
wine is then transferred into "neutral" holding tanks to rest and consolidate
59
its flavor until the following March, when it is trucked to the cellars in
Vila Nova de Gaia to begin blending and aging.lxxxviii
Originally, the wine was transported in oak casks, stacked
precariously on large wooden boats known as Barcos de Rabelo (See
appendix D for images). Sailed upriver from the sea in a journey that
could take more than a week, the barcos would make a fast, and
dangerous two day journey downstream, fully loaded, and running rapids
that would claim many lives every year. These vessels are so emblematic
of the trade that, even though they last carried wine in the 1960's and have
been replaced by efficient, stainless steel tanker trucks, nearly every major
Port wine company moors one barco de rabelo along the river in Gaia and
Oporto. Once a year, on the feast of St. John, patron of Oporto, these
venerable craft are raced by the staff of the various Port wine companies
in a chaotic regatta.
Port wine is extremely complicated produce and up to five or more
varieties of grapes can be used to make just one variety of Port. There are
two basic types of Port, white and red, each respectively made from white
and red grapes. Aging for all Port wines is based on how much contact the
wine will have with wood, usually oak, and oxygen. Ironically, prolonged
contact with wood robs the red wine of color, while adding color to
whites. Both wines begin their aging process in a similar manner, in large
60
vats made of oak, usually French or American. These vats range in size
from about 10,000 liters, up to about 100,000, though most are less than
half that size. All wines will spend at least two years in these large vats:
larger for those requiring less contact with wood, such as Rubies, Vintages
and Whites, smaller for those needing more, such as Tawnies. The art of
the winemaker is such, that the decision whether it is to be sold as a
simpler young wine, or a more complicated aged one, has already been
made, even while the raw most, or fermented juice is still in the tanks, or
cubas, up in the Douro Valley. However, tasting and blending occurs
constantly during the aging process, to ensure the optimum aging time
takes place in the best container.
Wines
There are several varieties of White Port, whose characteristics are
determined by how quickly fermentation was halted, and how they are
aged. The youngest, and usually the sweetest White, is known as
Lagrimas, or tears. Its high sugar content is assured by adding the brandy
after about a day or so of fermentation. Then, once this wine reaches the
cellars in Gaia, it will usually be stored in larger vats, for three to five
years, depending how it is progressing. Lagrimas will then be filtered and
bottled, and is ready for drinking. Dry White Ports can ferment up to a
week, so converting more sugar into alcohol. The rarest White is one that
61
is aged. These wines will transferred into smaller casks, where their clear
white color gradually darkens to a golden tawny, and the sharp, tropical
fruity flavor taking on a distinctly caramel quality. Most White Ports will
last at least a week once opened.
Ruby Port takes its name from the extremely dark, nearly opaque,
red color of a young red Port. Rubies are meant to have a rich, fruity
flavor, tasting of wild berries in some descriptions, such as blackberries
and raspberries. Preserving that fruit flavor requires that Rubies have
relatively little contact with wood, and so will usually age in large vats
from three to five years before being filtered and bottled, ready to drink.
Wines from different years are often blended in. Reserve Rubies will
generally age another year or two in the vats in order to acquire a fuller,
more complicated flavor. Rubies should be drunk within a week or less to
ensure the best quality.
Vintage Ports, which are wines from a single year's production,
are considered to be the pinnacle of the Port wine maker's art, yet their
production is arguably the simplest of all Ports. Vintage Ports are
technically considered Ruby Ports due to their intense fruity taste and dark
red color, preserved by their limited contact with wood and air. Like
Ruby Ports, Vintages begin aging in large vats, to limit contact with wood
and air, for two years only. By this stage the company enologists will
62
decide whether to declare a vintage, for not every year is likely to produce
such a quality of wine. The next step is to send samples to the Instituto
dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto (IVDP), the Institute of Douro and Port
Wines, the Portuguese governmental quality control body. While
approval is usually granted, vintages have been turned down, and due to
the vagaries of soil and climate, not every company will have a vintage at
the same time. In fact, most companies will only have a vintage about
three times a decade.
Once the vintage is confirmed, the wine is poured directly into
bottles unfiltered, corked and sealed, and stored, stacked horizontally in
rows in near total darkness, as light would affect its color and quality.
The unfiltered wine will gradually produce sediment over the years, which
will spread along the downward side. The top side of the bottle is usually
marked with white paint, to mark where the label will go, ensuring that
the bottle will always be stored in the same position in order not to
disturb the sediment. While most Vintage Ports are blended initially from
grapes of different quintas, the quality of some of these properties is so
consistent, that a single quinta vintage is declared, using only the produce
of that one vineyard. In that case, the bottle will not only be labeled with
the year of the harvest, but with name of the individual quinta that
produced the wine. Vintage Ports are expected to age at least 10 to 20
years before reaching their peak of quality, and while some are drinkable
63
almost right away, many can age well over 50 years and continue to
improve.
Serving Vintage Ports is a relatively delicate operation due to the
sediment in the bottle. Two schools of thought seem to prevail in this
regard. One suggests that the bottle be stood upright for several hours to
allow the sediment to settle to the bottom. Then the wine should be
carefully poured into a crystal or glass decanter, stopping the pouring as
soon as sediment appears in the wine being poured. The other approach
is not to decant at all, nor stand the bottle upright, but to carefully pour
directly into glasses from a nearly horizontal position so as not to disturb
the sediment. Traditionally, with older bottles whose corks often are very
delicate, a heated pair of tongs is placed around the neck below the cork,
then ice is applied to neck, the shock breaking the glass cleanly. Vintage
Ports should be drunk within 24 hours, as the flavor and quality
deteriorate rapidly upon opening.
The other major red Port is the Tawny, which differs both in color
and flavor from Rubies. Due to their prolonged exposure to wood and air,
the color will change towards a golden "tawny," while the flavor evolves
towards that of dried fruit and nuts. Wines designated as Tawnies begin
in large vats, but after about three years are transferred to the smaller
100+ gallon casks, where they can age many years. Tawnies with an
"Indication of Age" are sold labeled as 10, 20, 30 and over 40 years old.
However, the wine has not remained in a single cask and aged for the
64
indicated period. These wines are, in fact, constantly tasted and blended
over time, from casks of other Tawny Ports varying in age from five to
over sixty years old. The goal, subject entirely to the trained senses of the
blender, is to produce a wine whose characteristics of flavor, color and
aroma are entirely consistent with a Tawny Port of the indicated age,
before being filtered and bottled ready to drink. Because of their longer
exposure to air during aging, these wines can last longer after opening, at
least a month before beginning to lose quality.
Interpretation: Tours
Guided tours are the main interpretive medium of the eight Port
wine lodges considered in this study. Due to the international character of
visitation, tours are offered in most major European languages: English,
French, Spanish, German, Italian and, of course, Portuguese. The
language and schedule of tours are usually based on the needs of a
majority of the visitors present, in the order in which they arrive. The
guides, most of whom are seasonal employees, are particularly chosen for
their linguistic skills. They are young, in their early to mid-twenties, and
predominantly female. The overall method of presentation is to maintain a
running narrative, interspersed with brief pauses for visitor questions.
Guides follow a similar thematic narrative, beginning with the
history of the Port wine trade and the specific company in question and the
65
grape growing conditions in the Douro River valley. During this stage,
most companies will describe what Port wine is, and mention the three
basic varieties. Tours then address grape growing and wine production,
followed by the aging process. During this latter presentation, the
different types of Port wine are introduced as the tour proceeds through
the cellar area of the lodge. Often near the end of the tour, the different
types of wine are described in more detail, prior to moving into the tasting
room. The wine tasting concludes all of the tours. Guides also introduce
the wines being tasted, and remain close by to answer visitor questions.
Most lodges also show films as part of the tour, some at the beginning, and
some at the end. For the most part, these films iterate, or reiterate tour
information.
Tours: Introduction and History
Almost all tours begin by introducing Port as a fortified wine with
three basic types; White Ruby and Tawny. However, history and
development of the industry is the theme that receives the most varied
attention in Port wine lodge tours. Some tour guides start with the 17th
century, mentioning the Anglo-French wars and the English embargo of
French wines, plus the Meuthen Treaty of 1703, but almost all will
mention the demarcation of the Douro in 1756. Some will mention other
events such as the Napoleonic Wars and the Phylloxera epidemic of the
66
mid-19th century. Most lodges spend relatively little time on company
history, unless there is a key personality considered to be important, such
as the company founder. Almost all mention the new parent company and
the date in which the original company was acquired. Ramos Pinto spends
half of its tour in their restored early 20th century office spaces, focused
mainly on the founder Adriano Ramos Pinto, his use of art in promotion
and his innovations in the business, such as the use of office machines and
bottling wine for shipment. Sandeman also emphasizes its founder
Geroge Sandeman, and the family connection to present day operations, as
well as the successful use of art and logo in the "Sandeman Don" symbol.
Taylor's was the only lodge which, during my visits, presented a
distinctly Anglo-centric slant to its tour. This bias may have been due in
part to the young English guide, emphasizing the English contributions to
the development of the wine and its aging, such as teaching barrel making
to the Portuguese. Both Taylor's, with the Bridges and the Robertsons,
and Graham's, with the Symingtons, are run by descendents of their firms'
historical owners and partners, and so place special emphasis on the role
of family ownership and daily involvement in company operations.
Taylor's, however, also highlights that its winemaking operations are the
sole responsibility of David Guimarãens, the Portuguese descendant of the
founders of Fonseca Guimarãens, with whom Taylor's merged in 1948.
67
68
Tours: Terroir and Winemaking
Most tours spend about a third of the time discussing the Douro
Valley: geography, geology, soil and climate; some mention grape
varieties, as well as the winemaking process. A key fact is that the grapes
are grown over 100 kilometers away from Oporto. Furthermore, the
mountain range of the Serra do Marão blocks moderating Atlantic winds,
which creates an extreme climate. The rocky, schistous soil has to be
broken up and terraced on the steep gradients of the valley. The benefits
of this soil are highlighted, such as absorbing heat from the sun and
transferring the heat to the roots, as well as allowing good drainage. All
lodge guides use maps when presenting this information, and several
lodges, such as Cálem, Sandeman and Ferreira, have topographical models
of one of their quintas to show the steep topography. Photographs of the
Douro Valley also serve as focal points for this part of the tour. At least
three lodges feature displays of schist stones to show the origin of the soil:
Cálem has a layer on the floor under photos of the Douro Valley;
Burmester has wine basket full of them, which the guide can pick up and
show visitors; and Ramos Pinto has constructed a complete five meter-
long section of socalco terrace wall, three meters high, complete with inset
steps. Ramos Pinto, however, doesn't discuss terroir and winemaking
until the end of the tour.
69
The theme of winemaking directly follows terroir, with the guides
usually using photos of the harvest and lagares to illustrate the process.
Burmester uses few photos on the tour, but has related artifacts, such as
harvest baskets, cutting shears and vine cuttings to act as visual aids.
Ramos Pinto mainly relies on a slide show at the end of the tour, which the
guide narrates, to illustrate winemaking. Neither Taylor's nor Croft have
significant illustrative material to use during tours, though both have many
images and artifacts in their reception rooms. Graham's features two slide
shows and a film, which guides can elect to use at either the beginning or
end of tours, based on visitor numbers and need. Photos also help
illustrate transportation in all the tours, though several use models of
Barcos de Rabelo to discuss the difficulties of river transport.
Tours: Wines & Aging
Logically enough and without exception, all guides discuss the
wine aging process while leading the tours through the cellars, surrounded
by massive vats and stacks of casks. This part of the tour, therefore is
heavily aided by the warehouse facility itself, as guides point out the
different size vessels and discuss their use, and the wine which ages in
them. If present, guides also indicate the white paint on the vats' stone and
concrete stands, that makes obvious any leakage, as well as the tall gauges
which measure their contents in liters and number of casks. Drawing
70
visitors' attention to the spigots on the vats, guides also emphasize the
constant tasting that goes on as part of the blending process. The varying
size of vats and casks allows guides to illustrate the differences in the wine
caused by contact with wood and air. Several lodges will explain that the
casks in particular are frequently used previously for regular, non-fortified
wine before they are used for Port, as new wood would impart too strong a
flavor. Sandeman's also notes that older casks are then sold again to
Scottish whisky distillers, who value the complexity that used Port casks
add to their product.
Guides often use Vintage Port storage areas to discuss that wine
type, whether they are actual storage areas, or models installed for tours.
Not all guides say if they are showing a model, though Sandeman does,
explaining that the actual Vintage wines require near total darkness.
Guides in several of the lodges use displays to discuss the up to 12
different variations of Port, whether large backlit color images, such as
Cálem and Sandeman, or actual bottles in a wooden box, like Burmester.
This detailing of the wine types usually takes place at the end of the tour
before tasting, though at Burmester it occurs at the beginning. Croft
features the most unique finish to a tour, which takes place in a Vintage
Port storage room, containing the oldest wines owned by the company.
After describing Vintage Ports and their peculiarities, the guide
71
demonstrates the opening of a bottle using tongs, though not actually
heating them, on a bottle that has already had its neck broken in this
manner. Visitors can then handle the tongs and feel the smooth edge of
the glass.
Tours: Tasting
Guided tours are the backbone of Port wine lodge tourist services,
and are the means by which the industry personalizes the visitor
experience, and guides often include tasting notes to highlight the different
wines. The tasting room, as in any winery experience, culminates every
tour in the Port wine lodges. Wine tastings are included with the tour,
regardless of whether the entry is free or not. The offerings range from
one to four wines, typically, a White and a Ruby. Free or low cost tastings
are, of course, effective sales tools for the lodges, and certainly bring alive
for visitors all the information they receive during tours.
Interpretation: Museums
Unlike their tours, the museums of the Port wine lodges vary
considerably in their format, accessibility, and formality or sophistication,
of presentation. A number of the lodges integrate museum displays into
their reception and tasting rooms. Others place them within the cellars
themselves, so they can serve as an introductory interface for visitors, and
72
thus are entered at the beginning of a tour. These are used by the guides to
discuss the historical and technical background of Port wine, and tend to
be more sophisticated than displays in reception and tasting areas. Some
lodges vary their formats, such as Graham's, which, in addition to exhibits
in the reception area, features a cooperage exhibit within the cellars.
Ferreira offers exhibits in reception, as well as the adjacent tour waiting
area, but has two extensive exhibition galleries at the far side of the
cellars, which are seen only at the end of the tour. Sandeman is the only
lodge to feature a dedicated museum space, which is not part of the tasting
room or reception, and is always accessible during regular hours.
Museum exhibition spaces may differ widely, but a major part of
the visitor experience in the lodges, and a significant part of their
interpretive effort, takes place in the cellars, the large, stone warehouses
used to age the wine. While not technically museums, it is within these
spaces that visitors are closest to the "real" world of the wine making
process - more than one guide emphasized that the cellars are not exhibits,
but working areas, whose location, physical plant and atmospheric
conditions are considered vital to the final process of Port wine
production: aging.
73
Museums: Cellars
The word "cellar" refers to "a room below ground level...used for
storage" (See photos in Appendix E). The cellars of the Port wine lodges,
in fact, conform more to the original Latin cellarium, or storehouse. lxxxix
Terraced into the steep hillside fronting the Douro River, the cellars of
Vila Nova de Gaia are large, stone warehouses, built mostly in the 19th
century, their white walls and terra cotta tile roofs dominating the scene.
The interiors of these buildings are uniformly dark, damp and cool,
particularly when contrasted with Portugal's bright, and hot, summer sun.
These characteristics make the cellars ideal for aging Port wine. While a
few companies have begun to age their wines in modern, climate-
controlled buildings up in the Douro River valley, most still continue to
use the facilities in Gaia, as they have for over three hundred years.
Inside the storage areas, one is struck by the sheer scale of the
spaces and the objects they contain. As mentioned earlier, Port wine aging
usually occurs in large, oak containers. There are two types: huge vats, up
to fifteen feet high and holding at least 10,000 liters, and smaller casks,
holding anywhere from 550 to 650 liters each. Most of the vats are of a
type called balseiros, which have slatted sides like barrels, slightly conical
in section, and are stood on the wider end. These vats sit on concrete or
stone platforms, which are often painted white, to show any leakage which
74
may be taking place. Smaller, ovoid-section vats, called toneis, rest on
their narrower sides in stone or concrete cradles. For the most part, the
vats are used for the initial aging of wine, anywhere from two to four
years. The vats are also each marked, on blackboards on their sides, as to
their contents, that is the type of wine, the harvest year and the current
volume. Vats also feature a large glass gauge, looking rather like a huge
thermometer. Two long, hinged wooden slats, which can close to protect
the glass, flank the gauge. Painted white, one side is marked in liters
along its length, while the other side measures the contents in the number
of casks.
The casks, or pipas, are the basic traditional measure of the Port
wine trade, a year's production being measured in "pipes," as the English
call them. Containing over a hundred gallons, or anywhere from 550 to
650 liters, these barrel-shaped casks are stored on their sides, stacked up to
four high. Pipas are used mainly for the storing of Tawny wines, some of
which will remain in the casks for up to sixty years. The contents are
marked in chalk right on the wood face of the barrel: not only the volume
and date harvested, but also the age (10, 20, 30 & 40 Years) of the Tawny
Port in which it is meant to be blended. Long rows of these stacked casks
are often kept in separate areas from the large vats, but frequently they
share space with their larger cousins, making for a visually impressive
75
sight. While the walls are invariably painted white, the floors of the
cellars vary from lodge to lodge: some are packed dirt, some are concrete
or stone, while still others consist of wood blocks, set on end into the floor
like bricks.
Vintage Port is problematic to display. Storage usually consists of
relatively narrow halls, blank by concrete or stone bins, like huge shelves,
usually three high, each containing hundreds of bottles. The bottles are
stacked, laid on their sides starting at the back of each bin, creating a
veritable wall of black glass perhaps twelve meters high. Stored in bottles,
unfiltered, for years, these wines are very susceptible to light. Therefore,
more than one lodge has created "models" of Vintage storage, while others
choose not to interpret them visually at all.
Museums - BURMESTER Burmester (For photos see Appendix F) is located some distance
up the hill from the main tourist area of the Cais de Gaia, and tours are
free of charge. The museum displays have been created mainly during
this past year, 2007, by the two visitor center coordinators assigned by the
parent company, Sogevinus. While Burmester itself has had a complete
museum in the past, the company's collection was transferred up into the
Douro Valley by its previous owners Amorim, before Sogevinus acquired
the company in 2004. The current museum has only been open since July
76
of 2007. As a result, the center coordinators, Gloria Ferreira and Susana
Gonçalves, have had to acquire artifacts and images from other
companies, as well as other sources in the Douro Valley.
As with most companies, the reception area is used as both
waiting room and tasting room. There are displays of the various wines
available for sale, a sales counter/wine bar, and a few museum-style
exhibits as well. These last include a display of a number of the prizes
won by Burmester's wines in recent years. Another small exhibit of
historic advertising posters is arranged on two sides of a large, free-
standing glass frame, though these had been removed by November 2007.
The cellar area, as with all companies, features rows of barrels and a
number of vats for aging the wine. The outstanding feature of this space,
which is emphasized as a working area, is the oldest working vat, or tonel,
still in use, dating to 1885.
The dedicated museum space, through which visitors pass on their
way into the wine cellar area, is quite simple, consisting of a high,
whitewashed room, of about 600 square meters. Formerly used for wine
storage and aging, one side of this room is lined with the stone shelves
which held bottled wine. Placed around the room are a number of small,
hand-operated machines formerly used for corking, labeling, oxygenation
and pumping wine into and out of barrels and vats. Labeling is minimal -
77
one photocopied sheet each, in a document protector, with a number and
the name of the device in Portuguese. On the floor near the middle of the
space is a small display of baskets, hand tools, a work shirt and some vine
cuttings. On the wall, in the right-hand corner after the entry is a small
map of the Douro region, under which is a traditional grape harvesting
basket filled with pieces of chist. Next to this exhibit is a case containing
a bottle of each of the different varieties of Port produced by Burmester.
None of these last three exhibits is labeled, as all exhibits in the museum
are designed to be explained by the guide at the beginning of the tour.
The gift shop offers only wines and related materials for sale, with no
books or other interpretive materials, though a free orientation pamphlet is
available.
Museums - CÁLEM Cálem, the first cellars which tourists reach after crossing the Dom
Luís I bridge, had its entire offices and public spaces completely
remodeled in 2004 (For photos see Appendix G). The dominant Port wine
company in the Sogevinus group features separate spaces for reception,
tasting and museum exhibits, as well as meeting rooms and an auditorium.
The museum is only accessible with a guide and serves as the opening,
explanatory area for the tours, which cost two euros. The large reception
area is dark, and practically bare of any sort of exhibit or decoration.
78
While the reception table is directly opposite the entrance, it is exactly
that, a table, with a couple of chairs and a computer. The casks and vats
of the cellars can be seen dimly behind the reception table, through a large
glass wall with CALÉM etched in 2-meter high letters. A single, small,
interactive computer screen is available over in one corner, featuring
access to the company website (not functioning at the time of my August
visit, but working in November). To the right is the entrance to the
museum; a solid sliding door opens only when a tour enters.
The museum space is large and somewhat "L" shaped, serving as
an anteroom for entering the cellars. Each wall holds a thematically-based
panel grouping consisting mainly of images and text, entirely in
Portuguese. The text blocks are placed throughout the panels, ranging
from nearly floor level to nearly two meters above the floor. Upon entry,
visitors see a large unlabeled, back-illuminated panel, showing the Douro
River from water level, around the corner from which is a large 19th
century image of the cellar complex and bottling plant. The next panel,
História, Tradição, consists of advertising from the 19th and early 20th
centuries, older photos of the Vila Nova de Gaia complex and images of
the founding personalities, printed on a background of a ghostly pale grey
image of the cellar complex. These images surround an inset display case
containing advertising cards, photos of the founders, as well as ledger
79
book and some letters, none of which have accompanying interpretive
text. However, the panel itself is nearly half-covered with blocks of text,
most of about 60-90 words each in at least 48 point non-seriffed type.
This text relates to, but doesn't always specifically address the adjacent
images.
The next wall panel, O Douro, in front of which on the floor is a
nearly half-meter wide bed of schist fragments, describes the Douro River
valley, its geographic location, unique geology and micro-climates. The
visual presentation is completely different, the background being solid
black, with the text being printed in bright red letters, each thematic title
being at least 200 point type, and accompanied by large, high-resolution
color photographs. The last major wall panel, O Vinho, also presents a
completely different visual aspect: the three individual panels are varying
shades of light grey. The text describes wine production and testing,
another transportation and the last highlights the art of cooperage, or
barrel-making. The images are a mixture of antique prints, as well as
older and modern photos showing winemaking facilities. The next display
is made up of three small inset cases in a wooden wall, displaying the
three bottles of Port spanning the company's history: 1870, 1920 and 2000.
The last set of panels before entering the cellars, reverts to the slightly
80
sepia-toned style of the first history panel, and describes the history of the
family and company ownership up through the takeover by Sogevinus.
The path through the moderately dark cellars is relatively long,
proceeding first through a section of vats, where the aging process for all
wines begins. Unlike many Port Wine cellars, the floors and bases for the
vats are plain concrete. At the end of the cellar area, before the tasting
room entrance, is an illuminated panel grouping showing the eight
varieties of wine made by the Cálem. Beside the entrance, markings on
the wall show the historic water levels of floods which reached the cellars,
up to two meters deep.
The tasting room is fairly sparse, flanked on one side by glassed-
in stone arches, allowing visitors to see the stacks of casks in the cellar
area. Along the other wall are shelves of wine for sale, clearly priced and
grouped by variety. The room is filled with modern wooden tables and
aluminum benches. At the far end is the wine bar, and near the exit the
wine sales counter. As with Burmester, the gift shop sells no books or
interpretive materials, only wines and related items, though a free
informational flyer is offered.
Museums - CROFT Croft, though part of the Fladgate Partnership since 2001,
maintains its own visitors center and museum spaces (For photos see
81
Appendix H). The museum area is mainly incorporated into the
reception-tasting room, with another room, dedicated to Vintage Port, at
the far end of the cellar area. While the reception exhibits are obviously
open to the public, the Vintage room can only be seen during tours. The
reception area is in a long, stone room, flanked by an arcade. One side
contains vats of aging wine, and the opposite wall, a series of exhibit cases
and mural-size photographs. Next to the arches are a number of tables and
stools made from wine barrels. Upon entry, the reception counter is on the
left, as well as the cashier for adjacent gift shop area. While there are no
books or other interpretive materials for sale, Croft offers an informative
free pamphlet at the entrance. On the right, behind an unlabeled massive
oak and stone wine press, is the wine bar for serving the free samples of a
Ruby Port. A wide selection of other wines for tasting can be purchased at
the sales counter. The far end of the room offers a pleasant lounge next to
a large double window. The ceiling is of particular interest, for aside from
having massive oak beam supports, it is lined with cork, Portugal's other
famous product, and one small section has been cut away to reveal the
bundled river-reed insulation. However, there is no signage to point this
out, nor why it was done.
Signage, in fact, is not evident in any part of the reception area.
There are pieces of equipment, such as wine pumps for transferring wine
82
and stills for making brandy, placed along the arches, in the lounge area
and next to the display cases. However, there is no interpretation of these
artifacts. There are three traditional vitrines along one wall, each with a
flat upper section and a large lower section with glass doors. They contain
a mix of artifacts: ledgers, historic and more recent letters, photographs,
bottles of wine, labels, decanters and a few items of vinification
equipment. Almost none of these items are labeled. One significant
exception, labeled in Portuguese and English, is a small, hide-bound chest,
which contained a 100,000 pound grant from the British government,
distributed by Sir John Croft to aid the population of the region after the
Napoleonic Wars. Large, mural-size photographs of the Douro Valley
hang over two cases, while a display of branding irons used on casks
hangs over the center case. This display actually surrounds a shadow case
containing a large silver salver, or platter, once owned by the Croft family.
The label, displayed below, consists of a letter, in English, donating the
charger to the company and explaining its background. Between this
group of cases and the serving bar stands a large, elaborately carved
glassed bookcase, in which are prizes, certificates and medals won by
Croft's wines in recent years, displayed alongside bottles of those prize
wines.
83
The cellar area is found in a nearby building. The visitor is first
confronted with a very large title display consisting of three black barrel
heads mounted on a white wall, each bearing the name of Croft in white
letters, under each of which is the founding date of 1678. Under this
display is painted in black the name of Croft's vineyard, Quinta da Roeda.
The path first leads, unusually, through a storage area of vintage wines,
consisting of a series of large stone shelves, painted white, each containing
hundreds of bottles, stacked horizontally, many rows deep. Each shelf is
labeled with the year of the vintage stored there. The path then leads past
rows of vats and then casks, all marked as to their capacity and contents,
before ending in a small room, labeled Museu, which contains the oldest
and most valuable bottles of vintage wine. In the center of the room is a
Victorian desk displaying a decanter and an iron for opening older vintage
Port bottles, while an unlabeled selection of tapping tools are exhibited on
one wall. The white concrete shelves contain probably several hundred
bottles stored on their sides. One bottle of each of Croft's vintages is
mounted on sloping display boards, as well as a number of vintages from
the Delaforce company, which was also acquired by Taylor's in 2001. The
oldest Croft vintage on display is from 1851. Tasting of a Ruby port takes
place back in the reception room.
84
Museums - FERREIRA
A.G. Ferreira, purchased by the Portuguese company Sogrape in
1987, is located at the far western end of the Cais de Gaia (For photos see
Appendix I). The museum spaces occupy two distinct areas, the first is
free charge and consists of a series of panels and cases within the
reception and waiting areas. The second, viewable only during tours
costing two and a half euros, contains a larger series of exhibits in a series
of rooms and passages behind the cellar area, and is seen before entering
the tasting room. The reception area is an extremely large "L" shaped
space, flanked along the right-hand wall by massive, white-painted
concrete holding tanks for wine, each marked as to their capacity and
contents. The reception desk by the door is a simple table with a
computer. The reception museum space begins with an iconic object in
the middle of the room: the small, open carriage of the 19th century head
of the company, Dona Antónia Ferreira, placed on a flagstone base and
surrounded with plexiglas. The 10 x 20 cm. label, with about 18-point
Portuguese and English text, is placed on the floor. The back half of the
room contains a number of exhibits, beginning with two large modern,
black, two-sided stands, featuring antique wine bottle labels and
advertising posters. The title, printed in large white letters in Portuguese
and English, is placed vertically and sideways along one side of an antique
85
poster, while the explanatory text is placed underneath and near the floor
in approximately 20-point type. Behind these panels are a half-dozen
plexiglas cases, placed a little above table height on black pylon legs. One
case contains bottles of wine, while others feature ledgers and documents
related to the company's history, as well as other wine-related artifacts.
Very small text cards are placed on the sides of the bases below the cases.
Much of the front of the room is empty, as is the short arm of the
"L" to the right, though a mural-size photograph of workers carrying
harvested grapes hangs on one wall. Opposite is a separate waiting area,
containing modern wooden benches. On the walls are featured a number
of framed photographs of cellar and vineyard activity. Two exhibits stand
out in this space, though neither features explanatory text. The first is an
original stone marker, dated 1758, used to delineate the Douro wine-
growing region. It is displayed in a large recess in the wall, and set into an
actual section of schist wall, and backed with a large-scale black and white
photograph of the countryside. The other is a large colored topographical
relief model of the upper Douro Valley, with colored lights indicating the
positions of Ferreira's vineyards.
Ferreira's cellar area features the longest path of any of the
companies. It begins in a large chamber filled with dozens of massive
vats, all marked per custom with their capacity and contents, and set on
86
white painted stone and concrete platforms. The visitor then progresses
through a very long, dark and sloping passageway, before arriving in
another area dedicated mainly to aging tawny ports, dominated by rows of
casks, stacked four high and nearly reaching the ceiling. The visitor then
passes under a white painted stone arch, surmounted by the Ferreira name
and crest, before passing through a decorative tile lined anteroom,
featuring a small stone fountain, and entering the main museum area. A
distinguishing feature of this area is its complete lack of labeling and
signage. The hall leading to the exhibits is lined with a series of antique
prints, mounted on black board in groups of eight behind plexiglas. The
first exhibits room is a long, relatively narrow, low-lit modern space, with
terra cotta tile floors. The white walls are lined with wooden display
panels of branding irons and agricultural tools, interspersed with large-
scale photographs of vineyard and cellar activities. There are a number of
large artifacts in the middle of the space, including a barrel cart, baskets, a
grinder and barrel making equipment, some of which are mounted on
carpeted platforms. To one side is a small dark room, shut by a barred
door, containing the oldest vintage wines in Ferreira's collection.
Passing through a short, dimly lit passage, containing a large
model and photograph of a Barco de Rabelo, visitors arrive in a second
room, finished in a modern style as was the first. Here, however, one
87
wall, stripped to reveal the original stone construction, is lined with inset
glass cases. Lit from above, these cases contain a miscellaneous
collection of wine-related artifacts, which are completely unlabeled. The
middle of this larger room features a number of large artifacts, such as a
grape crusher, a barrel scale and a pump, all mounted on carpeted
platforms, and lit from underneath. Visitors pass by two large stills,
before entering the tasting rooms.
There are three distinct tasting areas. The first is a room
previously used for storing wine, with rustic wood benches and tables, a
stone floor, white painted stone walls and open wood-beamed ceilings.
The far end is dominated by a massive black sign with white letters of the
Ferreira name and crest, while one wall has large windows and the other
features three very large early 20th century photos of the cellars and docks
by the river. The second tasting room is far more elaborate, with more
finely finished tables and benches, terra cotta tiled floors, and massive
stone arches flanking the room, into which are inset large-scale black and
white photographs of the Douro Valley landscape. At the far end of this
space is the third tasting area, an elegant alcove, decorated and furnished
like an aristocratic parlor, with hardwood floors, carpet and nearly floor to
ceiling blue and white decorative azulejos or wall tiles. The gift shop is
yet another separate area beyond the tasting rooms, offering almost
88
entirely wines, plus a few clothing items and wine-related souvenirs, such
as cork-pullers, glasses and decanters. As with many of the Port wine
lodges, no books or other interpretive materials are available, aside from
the free orientation pamphlet offered at the entrance.
Museums - GRAHAM
Graham's is the most distant Port wine facility from the tourist
center, situated nearly half a mile up a steep narrow road from Ferreira.
Hence it is the only company which provides a regular shuttle service
from the Gaia waterfront. There are three distinct museum areas, only
one of which is regularly accessible to visitors (For photos see Appendix
J). The first is incorporated into the large reception/tasting area. The
second resides in the cellar area and the third in the basement. The
reception/tasting room is the front portion of a large warehouse. This
area has been divided from the cellar area by a large, wood-framed glass
wall, over which are displayed a continuous series of vintage photographs
of winemaking operations. The space is flanked on one side by a large
series of bookcases holding old ledgers, as well as exhibits of vintage
wines and other artifacts. The other side features a long wine sales bar, at
the far end of which is the glass-enclosed gift shop. Aside from wine and
related items, the shop features several small books on the history of
89
Graham's, as well as Dow's, both of which are owned by Symington
Family Estates. Against the glass wall of the reception room is a wine bar.
Under the bookcases on the left side of the room are a series of
nine sloping glassed-in wooden cases displaying a bottle each of most of
the vintage wines produced by Graham's since its founding in 1820. Each
case contains six bottles on a black background: under each, painted on
the glass in small (ca. 14-point) white letters, is a description of the
conditions of the vintage, a short summary of historic events of that year,
as well as a glossary of terms. The bottom section of each of the cases
displays a numerous different items, such as antique office equipment,
ledgers and other documents, metal stencils and wine testing equipment.
These exhibits sit nearly at floor level and are not labeled. The middle of
the reception area features two, four-sided, glassed-in wood cases,
displaying a variety of artifacts. There were originally three cases, but one
was removed when the new wine bar was installed. The front case
contains a collection of antique bottles, as well as a copper oxygenation
device, above which are a series of apparently original photographs of
harvest, transport and cellar activities, thumb-tacked in place around a
square black central column. One side features a photo of former British
Prime Minister John Major visiting the lodge. Below is tacked an original
letter from Major thanking Graham's for their hospitality.
90
The track available to visitors through the cellar area seems to
vary according to the numbers needing to be served. Upon entering, one
can pass to the left, and view a brief slide presentation on the history and
characteristics of Graham's and the Douro region, plus a display of a bottle
each of the variety of wines offered by the company, each accompanied by
a lighted tube of colored liquid, showing the change in color as the wines
age. Further along, one can visit a recently constructed corner museum
area, dedicated to the continuing need for cooperage by the company. A
series of high quality, framed black and white photographs of the
coopering team are displayed on two walls. While modern works, the
quality of the lighting gives these images a vintage feel. The middle of
this space features barrel-making tools and equipment, as well as a partly
constructed barrel. While labeled with small white cards, the print is quite
small (ca. 18-point).
Also, turning to the right rather than the left on entering the cellar
area, one can climb a set of stairs into a large room set up as a movie
theater and view a ten-minute film on Graham's and the Douro region.
Returning to the ground floor, the path continues past one end of the many
rows of vats and casks, before visitors can a slide show and display of
bottles, which are duplicates to those on the other side of the cellar,
described above.
91
The basement museum area was not mentioned by the staff at
reception. It appears to be currently used for special tastings and receiving
dignitaries. A series of finely finished vats lines the right hand wall, each
labeled in brass letters with a title, such as Ambassador, Governor and
Minister. A panel in Portuguese and English, entitled "Baptism
Ceremony," explains that "distinguished visitors" are invited to throw a
glass of twenty-year-old Tawny Port at the vat bearing his/her title. The
photographic exhibition on the left of this space, which was opened in
2002, is introduced by a title panel, "A Tradition Brought Alive," which
particularly focuses visitors' attention on the people involved in making
Port wine. A series of ten large pre-fabricated panels, arranged in a
square, displays mostly black and white, vintage photographs, with some
modern color ones. Displayed against a dark green background, these
images portray the Douro Valley, the river, transportation, harvest and
cellaring activities, as well as the Symington family (the current owners),
and present-day wine-making. Not all panels have block text, though all
images are labeled, albeit in relatively small (ca. 18 to 20-point) print.
Museums - RAMOS PINTO
Ramos Pinto, while owned by the French wine company
Roederer, functions independently. The lodge is the third major
establishment located along the Cais de Gaia, after Cálem and Sandeman.
92
Ramos Pinto's museum program differs from the other Port wine
companies, not only in style but also in extent, featuring an extensive
archeology and history museum on one of its vineyards in the upper Douro
Valley, as well as the facility in the lodge in Gaia (For photos see
Appendix K). No exhibits are installed in the reception/tasting area, a
large, traditional room with wood beamed ceilings, set up as a series of
lounge areas with large couches, as well as the usual tables with chairs or
benches. The reception desk, located by entrance, also functions as the
wine and gift sales point, beyond which is the wine tasting bar.
The museum area consists almost entirely of Ramos Pinto's
preserved early 20th century offices and private reception room. The
museum is viewable only during tours, with no photography permitted. It
occupies the upper floor of the main building, a large, yellow 19th century
structure. Visitors enter through the main door, and ascend a large
wooden staircase, the walls lined with elaborate blue and white azulejos,
which are one of the outstanding features of the building's interior. The
landing features a large mural of azulejos, depicting sensuous figures in
classical scenes of country life. The museum itself is large and bright,
with windows along one wall. Over a dozen roll-top desks in rows serve
as exhibit cases, and display under glass artifacts relating to the company's
history, interpreted by small cards using smaller (ca.14-18 point) print.
93
Most of desk/cases tell a particular story. For instance, one desk
contains an empty Ramos Pinto vintage port bottle intended for the
president of Brazil, carried by the first Portuguese pilots to attempt a flight
from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. The bottle is displayed with related
photographs and a letter signed by the pilots themselves, apologizing for
drinking the wine after their plane went down in the Atlantic Ocean.
Another desk contains a bottle of Port intended as sacramental wine,
accompanied by a letter from the Archbishop of Lisbon used to market the
wine to India, while a further desk interprets the company's use of
promotional gifts in its business.
The private reception room behind the office is a highpoint of the
museum. Richly furnished, it features artwork, a three bottles-in-one Port
wine decanter, and a throne used to seat important guests as they sampled
the wine. An anteroom, also elaborately decorated, contains a number of
rare vintage wines, displayed as they would have been during the early
20th century. Paintings and sculpture are featured throughout the
reception rooms, but none so massive as a scale model of a fountain
intended as a gift to the people of Brazil in thanks for their commercial
support. Occupying a large former safe, the exhibit tells that the design
that was rejected by Brazil's president as being morally objectionable;
evidently the figures in the sculpture were too scantily clad.
94
The cellar area open to the public is one of the smallest in Gaia,
particularly considering the size of Ramos Pinto and its production,
though it is clear that the company has considerable additional warehouse
space. Adjacent to some of the rows of vats and casks, marked as per
custom, are a few unlabeled pieces of antique production equipment, such
as a bottler. In one corner of this cellar space is displayed a full-scale
model of a schist terrace wall, such as are used on the steep slopes of the
Douro Valley. Neither this exhibit, nor the accompanying map of the
wine-growing region are labeled, intended as they are to be interpreted by
the tour guides. Guides also explain the silent slide show about the
geography and geology of the Douro region, and the wine production
taking place there.
The tour returns to the reception room, where a Ruby port is
offered for tasting. While there is no dedicated gift shop, a glassed in
wooden display table features a number of books for sale about the history
of the company and its advertising art, while an adjacent rack holds a large
selection of vintage advertising posters available for purchase.
Museums - SANDEMAN
Sandeman, part of the Portuguese Sogrape group, is found in the
middle of the Cais de Gaia tourist district (For photos see Appendix L).
The large white arched facade is arguably the most recognizable in Gaia,
95
and is situated on the only open square in town, facing the Douro River.
The reception area is a long, dark space, and the visitors' services desk is
found at the back by the cellar entrance, rather than by the front door. The
tasting area, containing a wine and sales bar, is separated from reception
by a low glass fence. Of all the Port wine lodges, only Sandeman features
a dedicated museum space, not part of the tasting room or reception area,
open to the public without a tour guide. It is also the only dedicated
museum space that has free admission, though admission to the cellars and
tours costs three euros. The entrance to the museum is found on the left
shortly after entering, just past a large, blown-up antique print of the
building's exterior.
The museum is small, perhaps eight by fifteen meters, and is
brightly lit, with a modern feel, emphasized by the black tile floor and the
white wall panels interspersed with sections of the original stone wall.
The title panel says much about the exhibition's interpretive focus:
"Sandeman - The Art of Branding Since 1790." About one third of the
exhibit space is dedicated to a temporary exhibition of the 20th century
history of the company's advertising efforts, exemplified by a series of
vintage posters and more recent publicity campaigns. The framed posters
and publicity photos are mounted on white walls, and interpreted by text
panels in Portuguese and English, varying from about fifty to 150 words in
96
a large (ca. 48 point) unseriffed font. For most of the pieces, the text
introduces the artists, explains the origins of the design and sometimes
gives anecdotes about their creation.
The "Sandeman Don," for example, was designed by George
Massiot Brown in 1928, and is still in use today. He wears a black, wide
brimmed Spanish style hat to symbolize Sandeman's sherry business,
while also wearing a black cape, like those traditionally worn by
Portuguese students, to symbolize the Port trade. Placed adjacent to the
"Don" poster and mounted on a black box, is a plexiglas cube case
containing a unique collection of ceramic Port wine bottles displayed on a
light grey cloth ground. These bottles were cast in the shape of the
"Don," and were produced in various colors and sizes from the 1940's
through the '70's.
The balance of Sandeman's museum displays historical prints, as
well as artifacts related to wine production and consumption. Along the
wall past the "Don" exhibit is placed another plexiglas case, which
features a collection of antique bottles, from the 17th through the 20th
centuries. A 15 x 20 cm. white card with letters in a small (ca.16 point)
font is placed flat inside the front of the case, explains the evolution of the
bottle shapes in 2 blocks of text in Portuguese and English of about 150
words each. Beyond the bottle exhibit, six antique prints of Vila Nova de
97
Gaia and the Douro valley are mounted on a white wall panel, next to
which hangs a large print of 19th century barrel making. Next to the print
in the corner stands a barrel, above which hangs a branding iron with a
block of wood showing the Sandeman mark which it made.
In the middle of the floor sits another large, lower plexiglas cube
case, displaying a bench and implements used traditionally for corking
Port bottles. These artifacts include a small work-bench, mallets and
leather "boots" or sleeves to hold the bottles while corking.
Accompanying the small text card is a 20 x 14 cm. black and white
photograph, picturing workers engaged in corking during the mid-20th
century. Against the wall opposite sits a glass-topped, wood, table-height
case containing a variety of objects, ranging from bottle labels and enamel
cask tags, to a diverse selection of cork pullers.
Back in the reception area, just past the museum hangs a large flat
video screen showing a silent continuous loop film of vineyard activity
and views of the Douro Valley, above which are printed in large white
letters historical quotes about the characteristics of Port wine. Next to the
screen and opposite the reception desk stands another plexiglas case
displaying a collection of antique metal wine measures.
The cellar area is entered by passing a life-size billboard of the
Sandeman Don, and into a small room containing a topographical model
98
of the "A" rated Quinta do Vau, the company's flagship vineyard, set into
the wall behind glass. The path then proceeds through a series of large
(2.5 meter high) curved back-lit plastic panels featuring close up
photographs of grapes and vines, interspersed with more distant views of
vineyards and the Douro Valley, before passing through two large
warehouse spaces, the first containing mainly large vats and the second
mainly stacked casks. The vats, the largest of which has a 70,000 liter
capacity, are mounted on stone and concrete platforms with legs, all
painted white, as is the floor underneath, to alert workers to leakage. The
floor is made up of wooden blocks set in like bricks. A method used only
by a few companies, this protected casks as they were rolled through the
warehouse, as well as absorbing moisture to help maintain humidity.
Water troughs are also placed throughout the aging spaces to add
humidity.
The cellar path passes through a set of illuminated curved plexiglas
panels portraying the 13 variations of Port wine marketed by Sandeman.
Not only do these panels show larger than life-size color photographs of
each bottle of wine against a white background, but below are represented
some of the foods that best accompany each type. The next space is a
small theatre in which a short, narrated slideshow is presented, featuring
an overview of the characteristics of the Douro Valley, wine growing and
99
production, as well as the characteristics of the different wines and their
aging. Adjacent to the reception area, the tasting room is a large space
under beamed ceilings and stone arches. A Ruby and a Dry White Port
are offered to visitors seated on benches at long wood tables. The wine
bar/gift counter occupies one side of the space, offering a number of
branded items in addition to wine; however, at the time of my visit, no
books or other educational material were available for purchase, aside
from the Association of Port Wine Companies' publication, A Wine
Lover's Guide to Port. Not available currently is a book on Sandeman's
history, published by the company and advertised on their website.
Evidently, a new pamphlet is also being developed, therefore none were
available to be handed out, and I was given a previous edition.
Museums - TAYLOR
Taylor's, or Taylor, Fladgate and Yeatman, is the oldest
independent Port producer, and is the lead company of the Fladgate
Partnership, which also owns Croft and Fonseca Guimarãens. The lodge
is the second most distant from the riverside tourist center in Gaia, situated
a half mile up the hill from Sandeman. Admission is free for both tours
and tasting two wines. This location provides Taylor's with incomparable
views of the river and Porto on the opposite bank, particularly from their
terrace restaurant, the only such facility provided by a Port Wine lodge in
100
Gaia. The entrance, off a steep, narrow and busy one-way street, is
through a short drive, featuring a fountain and shaded by grape arbors,
beyond which are the entrances to the gift shop and the reception/tasting
room. The tasting room has the atmosphere of a private clubroom, with a
fireplace, plus over-stuffed armchairs and sofas, in addition to the usual
tables and stools made from barrels. The entire wall opposite the entrance
is a glassed arcade, with doors leading to the garden outside. Museum
exhibits appear throughout the reception area, and serve a dual purpose,
both didactic and decorative (For photos see Appendix M).
The largest exhibit is found in a large, traditional, floor to ceiling,
wood and glass case adjacent to the bar. This exhibit consists of about
three-dozen bottles arranged on glass shelves, each identified with a small
card fixed on a stand made from a wine cork. The earliest example dates
from Roman times, though the majority range between the 17th and 20th
centuries. Some bottles are grouped by date or type, and there is no
explanation of the evolution of bottle shapes over time. Opposite this
case, before passing under the arches to enter the lounge area, is glassed
table case containing a variety of items, including antique cash boxes,
bottles of wine, prizes from wine competitions, as well as medals from the
Portuguese government awarded to Richard Yeatman, one of Taylor's
owners before 1950. The lounge area is flanked on two walls with built-in
101
bookcases containing dozens of leather-bound ledgers and account books,
alternating with built-in display cases. Over the first of these of these
cases hangs an 18th century map of the Douro wine growing region, while
over another is a portrait of Yeatman. The cases feature mainly letters
related to the history of Taylor's, as well as wine competition prizes. Little
labeling is evident, and when present, consists of small cards with text in a
small (ca. 14-point) font.
A number of exhibits are situated in an area on the far side of the
bar from the entrance. Opposite the end of the bar is a large glass case,
built with a flat top divided in three sections. The first section contains
some letters and receipts, the second, photos of wine production, as well
as printed sheet detailing the innovations in production and marketing
Taylor's has undertaken over the years, while the third section has more
letters, and a sheet telling the history of Taylor's 4TXX brand mark. The
bottom section of this case contains a number of antique bottles and
vinification equipment. Above this case are hung three large prints, drawn
in a cartoon style, describing respectively "Viticulture in the Douro," "Port
Harvest" and "How Port is Made."
Proceeding clockwise, the next exhibit in mounted on two large,
nearly two meter high, folding screens, each with nine panels about ten
inches wide. Mounted on the screen are photographs on photocopied A4
102
sheets, alternating with sheets of text in about 14-point font. These sheets
are staggered so as not to display a single row of images or text, though
they cover the screens from the top to the floor. The first screen discusses
the history of the company, as well as the geography of the region and the
geology of the Douro Valley. The second screen exhibit is concerned with
the process of growing, producing and aging Port Wine. The last exhibit
is directly adjacent to the end of the bar, and consists of a flat glass case
dedicated to the development of the Late Bottled Vintage variety of Port
Wine. Taylor's asserts that Richard Yeatman originated the L.B.V. in the
1970's, allowing restaurants to offer a higher quality of Port, which would
last more than one day after opening, as traditional Vintage Ports will not.
Now nearly every Port shipper in Gaia markets an L.B.V.
The cellars open for tours are situated in another building. After
passing through a tiled entry hall, visitors enter a small anteroom
containing a small map of the Douro Valley growing region, as well as
some small photographs of the wine production process. The visitor path
continues through rows of casks, used for longer term aging, stacked three
and four high, as well the large vats for the initial aging of nearly all Port
wines. One visual highpoint is the view of a massive oak vat standing at
the end of a long row of stacked casks, marked with the name "Taylor's"
in large white letters and bearing the 4TXX brand emblazoned on a red
103
shield. The gift shop sells mainly wine and related items, as well as
vouchers for tasting additional wines, but it also offers a number of books
on Port wine and its history.
Summary
The history and creation of Port wine is complicated and the
lodges spend considerable effort to tell that story to the visiting public.
Guided tours are the main medium by which visitors learn about the
industry and its history. Most lodges treat the different thematic areas in a
similar manner, and arrange their presentation in the same order: history,
vine growing and winemaking, aging and tasting. Tasting is certainly the
climax of the visitor experience, though lodges differ on the variety of
wines offered, varying between one and four samples. Museums and
exhibits are treated in very different ways by the lodges in this study, in
terms of accessibility and format, or style. Some lodges mount their
displays informally in their reception rooms, while others have elaborate
exhibits which may only be visited as part their tours. Furthermore,
exhibits may or may not be used by guides to supplement tour
information, whether or not visitors pass through those areas during tours.
While all lodges provide small orientation pamphlets, again the amount of
information they provide varies widely, and only about half their gift
stores sell additional literature.
104
CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS
The Port wine industry has been a vital component of the Douro
Valley and the Oporto region for over three hundred years, and even the
name "Port" inextricably links it with the region's culture and image. The
rise of cultural tourism as a recognized facet of European leisure travel in
the last quarter of the 20th century coincided with the fall of Portugal's 40-
year dictatorship, the beginning of tourism development in the country,
and the opening up of the Port wine lodges to tourism. The lodges in Vila
Nova de Gaia quickly became a major tourist destination, exposing
visitors to a "real life" space dedicated to the aging of a unique kind of
wine, and in tasting, allowing them to experience that product. After the
turn of the millenium, the Port lodges remain the single most important
tourism offering in Oporto, and this influence is now expanding into the
upper Douro River valley where the grapevines are grown.
Niche tourism has also been growing in recent years, as travelers
seek to follow their own specific interests throughout the world.
Enotourism addresses one of these interests, though many general tourists
also seek out wine related sites as an important aspect of local culture.
While Europeans have long recognized wine as a major cultural feature,
tourists from around the world are now seeking out wine-related
105
experiences such as vineyard and cellar visits, and naturally wine tasting.
Oporto, Vila Nova de Gaia and the upper Douro Valley are growing ever
more prominent as wine tourism destinations, as interest grows in the
country's heretofore little known wine. Oporto is now a member city of
the Global Network of Great Wine Capitals, and several Port wine lodges
have won Best of International Wine Tourism awards, as have properties
in the Douro Valley.xc
Likewise, museums have been increasingly recognized by the
tourism industry in recent years as key cultural sites, just as the museum
community has been cultivating tourists as a major source of visitation.
Regional and municipal authorities in Europe promote museums heavily
to tourists, and the number of museums is growing. Artistic endeavor and
traditional culture are not the only subjects of these institutions.
Traditional production entities, such as the Port wine industry, which have
been key to regional development and history, are now being "museum-
ized" to preserve older manufacturing techniques, as well as to make a
vast industrial patrimony more economically viable. The opening of the
Port lodges to tourism has added value to those facilities: financially
through entrance fees and wine sales; in a promotional sense in creating
awareness of the wine; and through tours and exhibitions that educate
106
visitors about the complex process of producing Port, as well as the
relationship of the industry to Oporto's culture and history.
Winemaking has certainly been recognized by local and national
governments as an important facet of regional culture, and enotourism has
become a key niche market. Specialized tour packages are now offered in
major wine producing regions throughout the world. In Portugal, for
example, tours are available through the website For the Love of Port to
both the Douro Valley and the other major fortified wine region, the island
of Madeira. Wineries have reacted to growing visitor interest by offering
tours and wine tasting, and many have now begun to open museums
related to winemaking and local culture as a means of differentiating
themselves from their competitors. While only about ten percent of
visitors buy wine at the lodges, sales and entrance fees make tourism
profitable, and the customer good will and interest created by the tour
experience are considered invaluable.
Port Lodge Museum Activities
The museological activities of the Port wine lodges of Vila Nova
de Gaia in Portugal are a major feature of cultural tourism in the Oporto
region, and exemplify the growth of wine tourism throughout the country.
Tours of the cellars, as well as wine tasting, are the certainly predominant
offerings in the lodges' tourism efforts. However, it is evident that in
107
recent years museum exhibits, whatever their scope, are also being used to
educate the public, not only as potential consumers of wine, but in
response to visitor interest in the industry as a regional and national
cultural icon.xci
Guided tours are the lodges' principal interpretive medium, and
have achieved a certain level of standardization in both style and content.
But lodge museum exhibits vary widely in format and sophistication. It is
evident that the different companies have varying confidence in the
museum idea, and some have limited means, in budget, expertise and
personnel, to maximize the potential of their museums as interpretive
tools. While the lodges wish to differentiate their programming, they
might still increase the effectiveness of their museum formats by
collaborating to seek out professional input.
Tours, as noted above, are fairly homogenous in both their form
and content, covering basically the same interpretive material in a similar
order: history, grapevine growing, winemaking and aging, and varieties
and characteristics of the different Port wines. An exception is found at
Ramos Pinto, where the first half of the tour focuses on the company's
commercial history. As my descriptions in the previous chapter
demonstrate, a great deal of detailed information is imparted during the
tours. Moreover, it is evident from my observations that visitors are
108
interested in what they are hearing and often ask relevant questions.
There exists, however, a sense that time is a constraint, which is
borne out by the fact that visitors allow less than one hour for their entire
visit, including tastings.xcii One result is that guides tend to speak in a
continuous monologue, with pauses for questions. Yet, guides usually do
not prompt more visitor response through questioning techniques of their
own. Furthermore, guides present mainly factual information, and they
tend not to use the more engaging method of story telling, as advocated by
specialists like Falk and Dierking. Creating an "archive" of personal
stories of the key people and events of the development of Port wine
would go a long towards bringing those facts alive. Another missed
educational opportunity in the tours is the amount of guidance given to
visitors during tastings. While many visitors may be familiar with Port
wine, analyzing a wine's qualities while tasting it is a skill that tour guides
can foster, both through highlighting key flavors and asking visitors to
describe what they are tasting.
The individual museums in the Port wine lodges are more difficult
to analyze, given their wide range of style and format. Therefore I will
make general recommendations based on observations of characteristics
common to all the museums, as well as make further suggestions related to
those museums with unique characteristics of format and style. I also
109
include in this analysis specific examples of good exhibit practice that I
found in the lodge museums.
Four of museums existing in the eight lodges in this study are open
to visitors within or adjacent to the reception areas, while the other half are
housed within the cellar area, and are only accessible during tours. In the
former category, three of the lodges, Croft, Taylor's and Graham's,
incorporate those exhibits directly into the furnishings and decor of
reception area, while only Sandeman features a "dedicated space" per my
original control definition of a museum, adjacent to their waiting area.
Four lodges have exhibit space within their cellars: Burmester, Cálem,
Ramos Pinto and Ferreira. While Ferreira has a special exhibit in their
reception area, the majority of exhibits lie within a museum space in the
cellars, at the end of the tour. The balance of these lodges use their
museums at the beginning of the tour as an orientation space.
General suggestions for the Port wine museums refer to onsite
promotion of the museums, the organization of exhibits, the use and
interpretation of objects and images, and the placement and readability of
signage and labels. While all of the lodges in this study advertise in
promotional literature that they have a museum, visitors center staff do not
always actively encourage tourists to visit them, nor point out their most
interesting features. Reception staff should be encouraged to do so, as
110
well as be trained to highlight key aspects of the space they are in, such as
architectural details, or interesting artifacts and stories
Exhibits, both of objects and images, should be organized
thematically, each area designed ideally to tell a story related to the
highlighted theme. Objects and images should be carefully chosen to
further the narrative, and each should be at least identified by a clear label,
and their function or depiction incorporated into the thematic story. A
good example of thematic organization is the office museum of Ramos
Pinto, in which each glassed-in roll-top desk features a different theme and
story based on the featured material. Taylor's installed a good exhibit on
the introduction of Late Bottled Vintage Port, which this company was
instrumental in developing and promoting, featuring explanatory text,
advertising and original bottles of wine.
Key or iconic objects should be sought out and displayed in such a
way as to draw visitor attention. This type of material is particularly in
revealing some unique aspect of a given company's history and
contribution to the region, and would further serve to differentiate that
lodge from others. One example displayed in Croft's reception exhibit
space is an alms box, in which John Croft delivered a 100,000 pound grant
from the British government to the Portuguese people after the Napoleonic
Wars. Another example is Sandeman's temporary exhibit on their
111
advertising history, particularly highlighting the 1928 poster of the
Sandeman Don, the company's widely recognized symbol.
Museums and exhibit spaces should feature rotating exhibitions of
a particular aspect of company or regional history, or other wine-related
themes. Most visitors are unlikely to visit more than once a year, so
rotation need be only annual. However, over sixty-three percent of
visitors express great satisfaction with their lodge visits, while seventy
percent indicated that they would make a return visit.xciii With such a
large potential repeat clientele, the Port lodges could greatly enhance their
visitors' experience with new exhibits. Both Sandeman's and Ferreira
currently (2007) feature informative temporary exhibitions of their
advertising art and wine labels.
Addressing labels and signage, typeface or font size tends to be too
small for easy reading, especially in dark spaces: the body of the text
should be a minimum of 18 point, and captions should be larger still, with
high contrast to the background color.xciv The larger the type, the easier it
is to read. Both Cálem and Graham's have legible and well-organized
photographic exhibits on pre-fabricated panels. Text length and legibility
are particularly important during tours, as visitors have little time to read.
For this very reason, text on panels viewed during tours should be kept as
concise as possible. The height of text panels can be an issue: at least two
112
exhibits, among the most recently installed in lodge museums, have placed
blocks of text at nearly floor level, meaning that visitors have to crouch to
read it.
Another labeling issue is interpretive way-finding, as visitors will
have an easier time choosing what to view if signage points out the
different thematic areas. While most problematic in reception area
exhibits, the solution is not simple, as the atmosphere and decor often
resemble a 19th century club. Therefore, thematic way-finding needs to
designed so as to maintain this traditional ambience. Furthermore, objects
should be labeled at all times. This identification is particularly important
in museum spaces included with tours, where long text panels are not
viable, and visitors do not have time to examine artifacts and images at
length to ascertain their significance.
The use of dioramas or other exhibits which group objects help
create context for visitors. An important object category in the industry is
bottles, illustrated by the fact that at least three companies have amassed
bottle collections. As the evolution of bottle shape was crucial to the
development of Vintage Port, such exhibits could be organized
chronologically to illustrate changes over time. On a large scale, Ramos
Pinto has preserved their entire original office space in order to emphasize
the company's commercial history. Ferreira installed an extensive
113
exhibition in about 2003 related to a key 19th century figure, Dona
Antonia Ferreira, which included recreated office space and numerous
personal material related to her, including her small carriage. This
exhibition was evidently temporary, as it was removed within a couple of
years.
Sandeman's museum has installed an effective exhibit on
traditional hand-bottling practices, featuring a work bench and all the
necessary tools, and supplemented by a photograph of a workman engaged
in the process itself. Graham's also created a particularly evocative
exhibition on barrel making, or cooperage, featuring a complete set of
tools, along with fully and partially completed barrels, accompanied by a
large set of high-quality photographs showing the company's present day
coopering staff engaged in their work.
One effective exhibition technique is to relate key moments in an
industry's story to larger historical events with which visitors may be
familiar, of which Graham's exhibition of Vintage Port is a good example.
Displayed in a series of wood-framed vitrines, a bottle from every year
that the company declared a Vintage is displayed. The accompanying text
describes both the growing conditions of that year, as well as local events,
and further briefly describes one or two internationally significant events
which occurred during the same year.
114
Hands-on activities are another means by which the lodge
museums can further engage visitors. Burmester's museum now has some
potential to experiment with interactive exhibits. The museum currently
displays a grape-harvesting basket filled with large fragments of schist
rock, which guides handle and show visitors. The next step would be to
let the public pick up and feel these rocks, and imagine what it would be
like to have to break them up for vine planting. Visitors also could be
encouraged to pick up the basket and visualize the harvest. Burmester's
museum also contains a number of small, hand-operated machines,
formerly used in a variety of winemaking activities. While some may be
too fragile to operate, others may be suitable to be manipulated by visitors,
giving them a unique and memorable experience.
One last recommendation is to establish a system of professional
support for the Port wine lodge museums. The Associação das Empresas
do Vinho do Porto (Association of Port Wine Companies), already serves
as a promotional body for the industry, and further serves to coordinate
and publicize its tourism activities. The Association also employs an
independent quality control company, SGS Portugal, to visit the lodges
and perform annual tourism services evaluations.xcv Therefore, this
organization is ideally positioned to act as a coordinating body for
museum activities as tourism services. The Oporto city government
115
employs trained museum staff, which could be one source for professional
expertise. Furthermore, the University of Oporto offers a master's degree
in History and Patrimony, while the Universidade Lusófona offers a
program in Museology. These schools could well provide a source of
further professional guidance, if not a source of interns to help plan and
execute museum projects.
Summary
Collaboration is something which does not come easily to
museums due to the competitive nature of the field, and it is even more
problematic in the commercial world, where competition is even fiercer.
Yet through professional organizations, as well as artifact loans and
exhibition adaptation, such cooperation is rapidly becoming the norm.
The Port wine lodge tourism staff meets several times a year to exchange
ideas and plan strategy, and the result can be seen in their inviting visitor
centers and professional tours. Museums in the lodges remain relatively
idiosyncratic, each displaying a distinctive style, which serves to
distinguish them one from the other, but occasionally results in
methodology which may interfere with the visitors' understanding and
experience. It is my hope that the high level of collaboration evident in
the Port wine lodges' other tourism programs, can be applied to their
museums as well. This cooperation should not "homogenize" these
116
exhibit spaces, but should rather serve to optimize the interpretive
effectiveness of each, in such a way that accentuates its special qualities,
and the unique contributions of each of these Port wine companies, both to
the cultural history and contemporary economy of the region and the
nation.
117
Final Product Description
The final product for this project consists of a letter to the
Associação das Empresas do Vinho do Porto - AEVP (The Association of
Port Wine Companies) in Vila Nova de Gaia, written in both English and
Portuguese. In the letter, I propose to the Association that I make a formal
presentation in person of the findings of this project to the visitors center
managers of the Port wine lodges certified by the AEVP, and as well as to
any other staff which may be associated with museum activities in the
lodges. I have suggested that the presentation take place in the spring,
after I have competed my move to Portugal, and before the start of the
summer tourist season. I hope that this presentation will be the first step
towards establishing collaboration among the Port lodges in their museum
activities, and that it will further encourage them to in seek out and
develop innovative ideas for their exhibits and programming.
118
NOTES
i AEVP (Association of Port Wine Companies), http://www.cavesvinhodoporto.com/members.htm. Accessed 1 July 2007 and after. ii McKercher, Bob & Du Cros, Hilary, Cultural Tourism: The Partnership Between Tourism and Cultural Heritage Management, (New York: Haworth Hospitality Press, 2002), 1. iii Boorstin, D., The Image: a Guide to Pseudo-events in America, (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), quoted in Richards, G., "The Development of Cultural Tourism in Europe," in Cultural Attractions and European Tourism, Greg Richards, ed. (New York: CABI Publishing, 2001), 14. iv Anonymous quote in Newton, D., "Old Wine in New Bottles, and the Reverse," in Museums and the Making of Ourselves, ed. Flora Kaplan (London & New York: Leicester University Press, 1994), 274. v Silberberg, T., "Cultural Tourism and Business Opportunities for Museums and Heritage Sites," Tourism Mgt. 16, no.5, 361, quoted in McKercher, Bob & Du Cros, Hilary, Cultural Tourism: The Partnership Between Tourism and Cultural Heritage Management, (New York: Haworth Hospitality Press, 2002), 4. vi Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums and Heritage, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998), 145. vii MacCannell, Dean, The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999), 6. viii McKercher & Du Cros, Cultural Tourism, 40. ix Picard, M. Bali: Cultural Tourism and Touristic Culture,(Singapore: Archipelago Press, 1996) 108, quoted in Richards, G., "The Development of Cultural Tourism in Europe," in Cultural Attractions and European Tourism, Greg Richards, ed. (New York: CABI Publishing, 2001), 20.
119
x Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara, Destination Culture, 149-150. xi Ibid., 28. xii MacCannell, Dean, The Tourist, 50-51. xiii Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara, Destination Culture, 138. xiv Ibid. xv Ibid., 150. xvi Richards, G., "The Development of Cultural Tourism in Europe," in Cultural Attractions and European Tourism, Greg Richards, ed. (New York: CABI Publishing, 2001), 62-63 xvii ICOM. Development of the Museum Definition according to ICOM Statutes (1946-2001). (International Council of Museums, 2007.) http://icom.museum/hist_def_eng.html Accessed 10 October 2007. xviii Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara, Destination Culture, 137-8. xix Ibid., 139. xx Low, Theodore, "What is a Museum?", in Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift, Gail Anderson, ed., (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2004), 36. xxi Low, Theodore, "What is a Museum?", in Reinventing the Museum, 39. xxii Falk, John H. & Dierking, Lyn D, Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning, (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000), 10-11. xxiii Falk & Dierking, Learning from Museums, 17-19.
120
xxiv Ibid., 42-45. xxv Ibid., 48-49. xxvi Ibid., 57-59. xxvii Richards, G. "World Culture and Heritage and Tourism," Tourism Recreation Research 25, no.1, (2000) 9-18, cited in Richards, G. "The Experience Industry and the Creation of Attractions," in Cultural Attractions, 64-65. xxviii Richards, G. & Raymond, C. "Creative Tourism," ATLAS News, (2000) no.23, cited in Richards, G. "The Experience Industry," in Cultural Attractions, 65. xxix Rooijaakers, G., "Identity Factories Southeast Towards a Flexible Cultural Leisure Infrastructure," in Planning European Cultural Tourism, D. Dodd & A. van Hamel, eds. (Amsterdam: Boekman Found., 1999) 101-111, cited in Richards, G. "The Experience Industry," in Cultural Attractions, 66. xxx Dodd, T, "Opportunities and Pitfalls of Tourism in a Developing Wine Industry," International Journal of Wine Marketing, 7, no.1 (1995): 5-16, quoted in Williams, Peter & Dossa, Karim, "Non-Resident Tourist Markets: Implications for British Columbia's Emerging Wine Tourism Industry," in Wine, Food, and Tourism Marketing, C. Michael Hall, ed., (Binghamton, NY: Haworth Hospitality Press, 2003), 2. xxxi Folwell, R. & Grisell, B., "Characteristics of Tasting Rooms in Washington Wineries," Research Bulletin XB 1013, (Pullman, WA: College of Agriculture and Home Economics Research Ctr, Washington State U., 1989), quoted in Williams & Dossa, "Non-Resident Tourist Markets...," in Wine Food and Tourism Marketing, 2-3; and Williams & Dossa, "Non-Resident Tourist Markets...," in Wine Food and Tourism Marketing, 3. xxxii van Westering, J. & Niel, E., "The Organization of Wine Tourism in France: The Involvement of the French Public Sector," in Wine, Food and Tourism Marketing, 42-3.
121
xxxiii Thevenin, C., "Quand le Vignerons Font du Touristique," Espace, 140 (1996): 34-48, quoted in Hall, Wine Food and Tourism Marketing, 29-30. xxxiv MacCannell, Dean, The Tourist, 166. xxxv Ibid., 9-10. xxxvi Mitchell, R. & Hall, C. M., "Seasonality in New Zealand Winery Visitation: An Issue of Supply and Demand," in Wine, Food and Tourism Marketing, 155,165. xxxvii Goldberg, Howard G. "The Driest Wines (and the Drollest) Are in the Museum." New York Times, 2 July 1993, sec. C, p.1, col.1, Weekend Desk. xxxviii Goldberg, H. "The Driest Wines." xxxix Geraci, Victor W. Review of the Exhibit "Gift of the Gods: the Art of Wine from the Ancient World to Canadian Vineyards" in the Canadian Museum of Civilization, co-curated by Sylvie Morel and Roderick Philips, 5 November 2004 - 3 April 2005. The Public Historian 27, no.3 (Summer 2005): 96-99. xl Geraci, V. Review of the Exhibit "Gift of the Gods," 97. xli Levy, Paul, "Wine: A Theme Park for Oenophiles" Wall Street Journal, 30 July 1999, p.W.6, View; and Smith, Rod, "A Theme Park for Wine Lovers: Vinopolis Opens in London," Los Angeles Times, 21 July 1999, Home Edition, p.1; and Vinopolis, Wineworld London, 2007, http://www.vinopolis.co.uk/ xlii Levy, Paul, "Wine: A Them Park for Oenophiles," Wall Street Journal, 30 July 1999, p.W.6, View. xliii Bodega la Rural, Bodega la Rural, S.A. http://bodegaslarural.com/ingles/tradicion.htm Accessed 9 October 2007.
122
xliv Cueto, Adolfo Omar, Bodega "La Rural" y Museo del Vino: Dos Ejemplos que Respetan a una Misma Tradición. 2nd ed., (Mendoza, Argentina: Bodega La Rural Museo del Vino, 1987), 47. xlv Cueto, A., Bodega "La Rural, 48-55. xlvi Foster, D. in "World of Wine," Buenos Aires Herald, 1983, quoted in Cueto, A., Bodega "La Rural, 58. xlvii Jones, Benjamin, "A Modern Temple Dedicated to Wine," New York Times, 15 August 2004, sec.5, p.3, col.3, Travel Desk, Travel Advisory. xlviii El Museo de la Cultura del Vino, Dinastia Vivanco, http://www.dinastiavivanco.com/museo/museo.asp Accessed 14 October 2007. xlix Jones, Benjamin, "A Modern Temple." l Fisher, Ian, " Museum Puts Life, Truth and, It Hopes, Sales in a Wine," New York Times, 10 December 2004, sec. A, col. 3, Foreign Desk, Montalcino Journal, p.4. li Fisher, Ian, " Museum Puts Life...in a Wine." lii Ibid. liii Muirhead's Southern Spain and Portugal, The Blue Guides, ed. Findlay Muirhead, (London: MacMillan & Co. Ltd. 1929), 259-260. liv Spain and Portugal, Baedeker's Touring Guides, (Freiburg: Karl Baedeker, 1959), 223. lv "The City of Porto: Port Wine," in Porto Tourism, http://www.portoturismo.pt/index.php?m=1&s=2 Website accessed 25 October 2007. lvi Green Guide Portugal, (Watford, Herts., UK: Michelin Maps & Guides, 2007), 259, 267-268; & Fodor's Portugal, 8th ed. (New York: Fodor's Travel Publications, 2007), 324-325, 338-339.
123
lvii Brown, Jules, et al, The Rough Guide to Portugal, (New York: Rough Guides, 2007), 342- 344, + 4 pg. section betw. 536 & 537. lviii "Tourism," in Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto, http://www.ivp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=22&codSeccao=5&idioma=1 Website accessed 25 October 2007; & McArthur, Samantha, "Lisbon: Port Appeal," Europe, no. 368 (July/August 1997): 38. lix "Enoturismo e Rotas do Vinho," in Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho, http://www.ivv.min-agricultura.pt/cultura/index.html Website accessed 25 October 2007. lx AEVP, Associação das Empresas do Vinho do Porto (Association of Port Wine Companies). http://www.aevp.pt/new/pt/default.asp?id=1&mnu=1 Website accessed 25 November 2007 & before. lxi Ema Pinto, Promotional Office, AEVP (Associação das Empresas do Vinho do Porto - Assoc. of Port Wine Companies), interview by author, Vila Nova de Gaia, 13 November 2007, Author notes. lxii Vaughn, Linda, Visitor Center Director, W. & J. Graham & Ca., S.A. (Symington Family Estates) Email response to short survey, 12 November 2007. lxiii Ema Pinto, Promotional Office, AEVP, interview. lxiv "A recepção de turistas quer nas Caves em Vila Nova de Gaia, quer nas Quintas no Douro é fundamental para a Ramos Pinto porque é a única forma que a empresa tem de contactar directamente com o público que representa o cliente." Correia, Ana Filipa, Director, Archives & Museum, Ramos Pinto - Vinhos, S.A., email response to long survey, 14 November 2007. lxv Morgado, Ana Margarida, Director of Public Relations, Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman Vinhos, S.A., interview by author, 28 August 2007, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, author notes.
124
lxvi Martins, João Paulo, Tudo Sobre o Vinho do Porto: os Sabores e as Histórias, (Lisbon: Publicações Dom Qiuixote, 2000), map insert; & Caves do Vinho do Porto, map & guide, (Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Associação das Empresas do Vinho do Porto, n.d.). lxvii Mayson, Richard, Port and the Douro, revised ed., (London: Octopus Publishing Group, 2004), 1-3; & "Vila Nova de Gaia," Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vila_Nova_de_Gaia Website accessed 19 October 2007. lxviii Mayson, Richard, Port and the Douro, 2-3. lxix Ibid., 6-8. lxx Ibid., 9-12. lxxi Ibid., 13-18. lxxii Ibid., 23-26. lxxiii Ibid., 36-8, 40; & Martins, João Paulo, Tudo Sobre o Vinho do Porto: os Sabores e as Histórias, (Lisbon: Publicações Dom Qiuixote, 2000), 68-74 lxxiv By 2000, about 33,000 growers were planting just over 93,000 acres. In spite of the large holdings of the Port wine companies, over eighty percent of these parcels are less than 1.2 acres, and only .01 percent hold more than 74 acres. Mayson, Richard, Port and the Douro, 66-67. lxxv Burmester, Est'd 1750, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. Hardbound,10 pp. large (A4) format; Burmester, Est'd 1750: More than 250 Years of Tradition in the Fine Art of Making Port Wine, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 3-fold, ½ sheet format: & Cálem. http://www.calem.pt/ Website accessed 23 October 2007. lxxvi Porto Cálem, Est'd 1859. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 3-fold,¾ sheet format pamphlet; & Cálem. http://www.calem.pt/, website accessed 23 October 2007.
125
lxxvii Sogrape (English site), http://eng.sogrape.pt/ Website accessed 23 October 2007 & before; lxxviii Graham's Port. http://www.grahams-port.com/history.asp Website accessed 23 October 2007; & A Tradition Brought Alive / Reviver uma Tradição, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: W. & J. Graham & Ca., S.A., pamphlet. lxxix França, José-Augusto, Ramos-Pinto, 1880-1980, 4th ed. (Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Adriano Ramos-Pinto (Vinhos) S.A., 1998), cover. lxxx Ramos Pinto, http://www.ramospinto.pt/home_ing.htm Website accessed 23 October 2007. lxxxi Sandeman, http://www.sandeman.com/ing/general.html Website accessed 23 October 2007. lxxxii Taylor's, http://www.taylor.pt/main.htm Website accessed 23 October 2007. lxxxiii "Brief Description: Wine has been produced by traditional landholders in the Alto Douro region for some 2,000 years. Since the 18th century, its main product, port wine, has been world famous for its quality. This long tradition of viticulture has produced a cultural landscape of outstanding beauty that reflects its technological, social and economic evolution."
"Justification for Inscription: Criterion iii The Alto Douro Region has been producing wine for nearly two thousand years and its landscape has been moulded by human activities. Criterion iv The components of the Alto Douro landscape are representative of the full range of activities association with winemaking – terraces, quintas (wine-producing farm complexes), villages, chapels, and roads. Criterion v The cultural landscape of the Alto Douro is an outstanding example of a traditional European wine-producing region, reflecting the evolution of this human activity over time." "Alto Douro Wine Region," in UNESCO: World
126
Heritage, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1046 Website accessed 23 October 2007.
lxxxiv "Region," in Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto, (English), http://www.ivp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=16&codSeccao=4&idioma=1#c Website accessed 24 October 2007. lxxxv Spence, Godfrey, O Guia do Vinho do Porto: Guia do Conhecedor, Translated by Maria Filomena Duarte. (n.p: Qunitet Publishing Ltd., 1997. Portuguese edition, n.p: Centralivros Lda., 1998), 14-15. lxxxvi Spence, Godfrey, O Guia do Vinho do Porto, 16-17. lxxxvii Martins, João Paulo. Tudo Sobre o Vinho do Porto: os Sabores e as Histórias. (Lisbon: Publicações Dom Qiuixote, 2000), 100-105; & "Vines' Cultivation," in Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto, http://www.ivp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=17&codSeccao=4&idioma=1 Website accessed 24 October 2007. lxxxviii Martins, João Paulo. Tudo Sobre o Vinho do Porto, 117-126; Spence, Godfrey, O Guia do Vinho do Porto, 29-32; & "Winemaking," in Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto, http://www.ivp.pt/pagina.asp?codPag=69&codSeccao=2&idioma=1 Website accessed 24 October 2007. lxxxix The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, American Edition, (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 224. xc A number of documents related to the Best of Wine Tourism awards are available through the general inquiries "contact us" link: http://www.greatwinecapitals.com/cont_act_us.html such as: Best of Wine Tourism Awards 2007; 5th International Best of Wine Tourism Awards 2008, Contest Rules; as well as the 2008 Entry Form; all of which indicate the scope, categories and criteria for the contest. Global Network of Great Wine Capitals. http://www.greatwinecapitals.com/index.htm Accessed 28 November 2007 & before.
127
xci Perfil do Visitante das Caves do Vinho do Porto (Visitor Profile of the Port Wine Cellars), PDF, 22. http://www.aevp.pt/new/pt/default.asp?id=0&ACT=19 xcii Perfil do Visitante, 16. xciii Perfil do Visitante, 55 & 59. xciv Serrell, Beverly. Exhibit Labels: an Interpretive Approach, (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1996), 197-198.. xcv Ema Pinto, Promotional Office, AEVP, interview; & SGS in Portugal, http://www.pt.sgs.com/pt/home_pt_v2? Website accessed 19 November 2007.
128
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books 250 Anos Depois / 250 Years Later. Oporto: Universidade do Porto, 2006. Anderson, Gail. Reinventing the Museum: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Paradigm Shift. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2004. Beck, Larry & Cable, Ted. Interpretation for the 21st Century: Fifteen Guiding Principles for Interpreting Nature and Culture. 2nd ed. Champaign, IL: Sagamore Publishing, 2002. Brown, Jules, et al. The Rough Guide to Portugal. New York: Rough Guides, 2007. Cueto, Adolfo Omar. Bodega "La Rural" y Museo del Vino: Dos Ejemplos que Respetan a una Misma Tradición. 2nd ed. Mendoza, Argentina: Bodega La Rural Museo del Vino, 1987. Dow's, Established 1798: Family Owned Producer of the Finest Quality Port for Over Two Centuries. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Symington Family Estates, n.d. Falk, John H. & Dierking, Lyn D. Learning from Museums: Visitor Experiences and the Making of Meaning. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2000. França, José-Augusto. Ramos-Pinto, 1880-1980, 4th ed. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Adriano Ramos-Pinto (Vinhos) S.A. Green Guide Portugal. Watford, Herts., UK: Michelin Maps & Guides, 2007. Hall, C. Michael. Wine, Food, and Tourism Marketing. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Hospitality Press, 2003. (co-published simultaneously as Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing,18, no.s 3/4, 2003.) Janneau, Michel. Adriano Ramos Pinto: Le Génie Facétieux. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Adriano Ramos Pinto, Vinhos, S.A., 2000.
129
Kaplan, Flora S. Museums and the Making of Ourselves: The Role of Objects in National Identity. London & New York: Leicester University Press, 1994.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums and Heritage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998. Leinhardt, Gaea & Knutson, Karen. Listening in on Museum Conversations. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2004. Linder, Lisa, art director & Davies, Susan W., ed. Port to Port. London: LB Publishing Ltd., 1996. MacCannell, Dean. The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999. Martins, João Paulo. Tudo Sobre o Vinho do Porto: os Sabores e as Histórias. Lisbon: Publicações Dom Qiuixote, 2000. Mayson, Richard. Port and the Douro, revised ed. London: Octopus Publishing Group, 2004. McKercher, Bob & Du Cros, Hilary. Cultural Tourism: The Partnership Between Tourism and Cultural Heritage Management. New York: Haworth Hospitality Press, 2002. Muirhead's Southern Spain and Portugal. The Blue Guides, ed. Findlay Muirhead, London: MacMillan & Co. Ltd. 1929. The Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus, American Edition. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. Pereira, Gaspar Martins & Almeida, João Nicolau de. Porto Vintage, 2nd ed. n.p: Instituto do Vinho do Porto & Campo das Letras - Editores, SA, 2002. Richards, Greg. Cultural Attractions and European Tourism. New York:
CABI Publishing, 2001. Roberts, Lisa C. From Knowledge to Narrative: Educators and the Changing Museum. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997.
130
Sachatello-Sawyer, Bonnie, et al. Adult Museum Programs: Designing Meaningful Experiences. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002. Serrell, Beverly. Exhibit Labels: an Interpretive Approach. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 1996.
Spence, Godfrey. O Guia do Vinho do Porto: Guia do Conhecedor. Translated by Maria Filomena Duarte. n.p: Qunitet Publishing Ltd., 1997. Portuguese edition, n.p: Centralivros Lda., 1998.
Vinografia: Desenhos para o Vinho.(exhibition booklet) Oporto: Museu do Vinho do Porto & Da Companhia Design de Communicação, Lda., 2004 W.& J. Graham's Port, Established 1820. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: W. & J. Graham & Ca. SA, 2006.
Articles "A Vine Time is Set to Tempt the Fans." TTG, Travel Trade Gazette, U.K. and Ireland, 5 May 2003, 40. Brito, Carlos. "A Network Perspective of the Port Wine Sector." International Journal of Wine Marketing 18, no. 2 (2006): 124-?
"Editorial." Museum Management and Curatorship, no.12, 1993. 123-125. Fisher, Ian. " Museum Puts Life, Truth and, It Hopes, Sales in a Wine." New York Times, 10 December 2004, sec. A, col. 3, Foreign Desk, Montalcino Journal, p.4. Fodor's Portugal, 8th ed. New York: Fodor's Travel Publications, 2007. Geraci, Victor W. Review of the Exhibit "Gift of the Gods: the Art of Wine from the Ancient World to Canadian Vineyards" in the Canadian Museum of Civilization, co-curated by Sylvie Morel and Roderick Philips, 5 November 2004 - 3 April 2005. The Public Historian 27, no.3 (Summer 2005): 96-99. Goldberg, Howard G. "The Driest Wines (and the Drollest) Are in the Museum." New York Times, 2 July 1993, sec. C, p.1, col.1, Weekend Desk.
131
Hall, C. Michael & Mitchell, Richard. "Gastronomic Tourism: Comparing Food and Wine Tourism Experiences." In Niche Tourism: Contemporary Issue, Trends and Cases, Marina Novelli, ed.. Oxford: Elsvier, 2005. Jennings, Lisa. "Wine Country Learning Center growing into a Mecca for Culinary Travelers." Nation's Restaurant News, 40, no.22, (29 May 2006): 50. Jones, Benjamin. "A Modern Temple Dedicated to Wine." New York Times, 15 August 2004, sec.5, p.3, col.3, Travel Desk, Travel Advisory. Levy, Paul. "Wine: A Theme Park for Oenophiles." Wall Street Journal, 30 July 1999, p.W.6, View. Marques, Helena. "Research Report: Searching for Complementaries
Between Agriculture and Tourism - the Demarcated Wine-Producing Regions of Northern Portugal." (Abstract) Tourism Economics, 12, no.1, (March 2006): 147-?
McArthur, Samantha. "Lisbon: Port Appeal." Europe, no. 368 (July/August 1997): 38. Mendes, José M. A. "Património das Empresas." Munda, no.18, November 1989, 57-63. _______"Património Industrial: uma Bem da Comunidade ao Alcance da Escola." Munda, no. 20, November 1990, 65-72. Mitchell, R. & Hall, C. M., "Seasonality in New Zealand Winery Visitation: An Issue of Supply and Demand," in Wine, Food and Tourism Marketing, C. Michael hall, ed. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Hospitality Press, 2003. 155- 173. Oliver, Suzanne. "Sipping at the Source." Forbes, 156, no.3 (31 July 1995): 132- 133. Ravenscroft, Neil & van Westerling, Jestke. "Wine Tourism, Culture and the Everyday: A Theoretical Note." Tourism and Hospitality Research 3, no.2 (September 2001): 149-163.
132
Richards, Greg. "The Development of Cultural Tourism in Europe." In Cultural Attractions and European Tourism, Greg Richards, ed. New York: CABI Publishing, 2001. Roberts, Alison. "Lisbon: The Power of Port." Europe, no.407 (June 2001): 40- 41. Robinson, Mike & Novelli, Marina. "Niche Tourism: an Introduction." In Niche Tourism: Contemporary Issue, Trends and Cases, Marina Novelli, ed.. Oxford: Elsvier, 2005. Sharples, A. "Cider and the Marketing of the Tourism Experience in Somerset, England: Three Case Studies." in Wine, Food and Tourism Marketing, C. Michael Hall, ed. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Hospitality Press, 2003. (co-published simultaneously as Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing,18, no.s 3/4, 2003.),49-60. Smith, Rod. "A Theme Park for Wine Lovers: Vinopolis Opens in London." Los Angeles Times, 21 July 1999, Home Edition, p.1. Spain and Portugal. Baedeker's Touring Guides. Freiburg: Karl Baedeker, 1959. van Westering, J. & Niel, E. "The Organization of Wine Tourism in France: The Involvement of the French Public Sector," in Hall, Wine, Food and Tourism Marketing, 35-47. Williams, Peter & Dossa, Karim. "Non-Resident Tourist Markets: Implications for British Columbia's Emerging Wine Tourism Industry." in Hall, C. Michael. Wine, Food, and Tourism Marketing. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Hospitality Press, 2003. (co-published simultaneously as Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing,18, no.s 3/4, 2003.) Pamphlets (All pamphlets are in English and undated, except where mentioned. Duplicates in other languages may exist.) A Tradition Brought Alive / Reviver uma Tradição. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: W. & J. Graham & Ca., S.A. 20 pp. Barros Porto: A Seductive Proposal, an Irresistible Pleasure. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 3-fold 150% format.
133
Barros Porto, Est. 1913. n.p. 12 pp. large (A4) format. Burmester, Est'd 1750. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. Hardbound,10 pp. large (A4) format. Burmester, Est'd 1750. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 15 pp. large (A4) format sheets in A4 folder. Burmester, Est'd 1750: Come and Visit Casa Burmester and Port Wine Museum. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: J.W. Burmester & Ca., S.A. 3-fold in Portuguese, English & French. Burmester, Est'd 1750: More than 250 Years of Tradition in the Fine Art of Making Port Wine.Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 3-fold, ½ sheet format. Caves do Vinho do Porto, map & guide. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Associação das Empresas do Vinho do Porto, n.d. C.N. Kopke, Est'd 1638. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 10 pp. large (A4) format. C.N. Kopke, Est'd 1638. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 4-fold large 2/3 sheet (A4) format. Croft: Family Port Shippers, est. 1678. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Croft Port. 12pp. Dom Rozés Wine Bar: Come and Visit the Superior Douro. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: SPR Vinhos, S.A. 2-fold. Ferreira Porto. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: A.A. Ferreira, S.A. 3-fold in English & French. Fonseca Porto. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Fonseca-Guimarãens, S.A., 7-fold. Krohn Port. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Wiese & Krohn Sucrs., Lda., 4-fold in English Spanish, French & German.
134
Museum Area, Casa Ramos Pinto. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Adriano Ramos Pinto - Vinhos, S.A., 3-fold 70% format. Offley Porto Est, 1737. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Offley-Forrester, S.A. 5- fold, ½ format in Portuguese & Spanish. Porto Cálem, Est'd 1859. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 3-fold ¾ sheet format. Porto Cálem, Est'd 1859:Award "Best of Wine Tourism 2006." Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 3-fold 70%+ format. Porto Wine, Ramos Pinto. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Adriano Ramos Pinto - Vinhos, S.A. 3-fold. Quinta do N oval, Fine Ports Since 1715. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Quinta do Noval, S.A. 3-fold, 150% long-wise format. Quinta do Panascal. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Fonseca-Guimarãens, S.A. 2- fold in English, Portuguese & French. Quinta de Vargellas, Vintage Port. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman, S.A. 22 pp. Rozés Porto. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Rozés S.A. 3-fold in Portuguese. Rozés Porto. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Rozés S.A. (Grupo Vranken Monopole) Large format (A4) 4 sheets, 2-sided in folder. Sandeman Port Museum. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sandeman & Ca., S.A. 3- fold + insert. Taylor's Old Bottle Collection. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman, S.A. 4-fold. Taylor's Port. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman, S.A. 22 pp.. W. & J. Graham's Port, established 1820. Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: W. & J. Graham & Ca., S.A., 5-fold.
135
Unpublished Documents "1ro Encontro Internacional sobre PatrimEonio Industrial e a sua Museologia: Communicações." Proceedings of conference given at Museu da Água da Epal, Portugal, 1-2 October 1999. "18 Maio, Dia Internacional dos Museus: Programa." n.p. (Museu do Vinho do Porto). 1 p. photocopy. "Apresentação da Marca." Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal: Sogenvinus - Fine Wines, S.A. 7 pp. photocopy. Campos, Maria Rosário Castiço de. Museums as a Tourist Resource. Paper given at "Things that Move: The Material Worlds of Tourism and Travel," conference given at the Center for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds Metropolitan University, U.K., 19-23 July 2007.
"Folhas de Sala do Museu do Vinho do Porto." (descriptions of text panels) n.p. (Museu do Vinho do Porto). 3 pp. photocopy. "Guide for a Visit, Port Wine Museum." Oporto: Câmara Municipal do Porto. 6 pp. photocopy. Perfil do Visitante das Caves do Vinho do Porto (Visitor Profile of the Port Wine Cellars), PDF. http://www.aevp.pt/new/pt/default.asp?id=0&ACT=19 "Plano de Actividade: Cozinha com Porto." n.p. (Museu do Vinho do Porto). 2 pp. photocopy. Websites "Alto Douro Wine Region," in UNESCO: World Heritage. http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1046 Accessed 23 October 2007. Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tours. St. Louis, MO: Anheuser-Busch, Inc., 2007. http://www.budweisertours.com/home.htm Accessed 9 October 2007.
136
AEVP, Associação das Empresas do Vinho do Porto (Association of Port Wine Companies). http://www.aevp.pt/new/pt/default.asp?id=1&mnu=1 Accessed 25 November 2007 & before. Burmester. http://www.burmesterporto.com/en/historia/historia.htm Accessed 23 October 2007 & before. Cálem. http://www.calem.pt/ Accessed 23 October 2007 & before. Copia, the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts. http://www.copia.org/ Accessed 12 October 2007. Croft Port. http://www.croftport.com/entry.htm Accessed 23 October 2007 & before. Bodega la Rural. Bodega la Rural, S.A. http://bodegaslarural.com/ingles/tradicion.htm Accessed 9 October 2007. El Museo de la Cultura del Vino. Dinastia Vivanco. http://www.dinastiavivanco.com/museo/museo.asp Accessed 14 October 2007. For the Love of Port. July 2007. http://www.fortheloveofport.com/index.php?option=com_magazin e&Itemid=1 Accessed 1 October 2007. Fundação Serralves. Museum of contemporary art, Oporto, Portugal. http://www.serralves.pt/gca/?id=873 Accessed 14 October 2007. Global Network of Great Wine Capitals. http://www.greatwinecapitals.com/index.htm Accessed 28 November 2007 & before.
137
Graham's Port. http://www.grahams-port.com/history.asp Accessed 23 October 2007 & before. ICOM. Development of the Museum Definition according to ICOM Statutes (1946-2001). International Council of Museums, 2007. http://icom.museum/hist_def_eng.html Accessed 10 October 2007. ICOMOS. The Venice Charter - International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites. International Council on Monuments and Sites, 1996. http://www.icomos.org/venice_charter.html Accessed 1 October 2007. Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho. http://www.ivv.min-agricultura.pt/cultura/index.html Accessed 25 October 2007 & before. Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto. http://www.ivp.pt/index.asp?idioma=1 Accessed 24 October 2007 & before. Porto Tourism. http://www.portoturismo.pt/ Accessed 25 October 2007 & before. Ramos Pinto. http://www.ramospinto.pt/home_ing.htm Accessed 23 October 2007 & before. SGS in Portugal. http://www.pt.sgs.com/pt/home_pt_v2? Accessed 19 November 2007. Sandeman. http://www.sandeman.com/ing/general.html Accessed 23 October 2007 & before. Sogrape (English site).
138
http://eng.sogrape.pt/ Accessed 23 October 2007 & before. Taylor's. http://www.taylor.pt/main.htm Accessed 23 October 2007 & before. Vila Nova de Gaia. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vila_Nova_de_Gaia Accessed 19 October 2007. Vinopolis. Wineworld London, 2007 http://www.vinopolis.co.uk/ Accessed 12 October 2007. Interviews & Survey Responses Correia, Ana Filipa, Director, Archives & Museum, Ramos Pinto - Vinhos, S.A. Email response to long survey, 14 November 2007. Morais, Isabel, Public Relations, Sogrape S.A. (Sandeman & Ferreira) Email response to short survey, 14 November 2007. Morgado, Ana Margarida, Director of Public Relations, Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman Vinhos, S.A. Interview by author, 28 August 2007, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. Author notes. Nápoles, Ana, Visitors Center Manager, Ramos Pinto - Vinhos, S.A. Interview by author, 12 November 2007, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal. Author notes. Ema Pinto, Promotional Office, AEVP (Associação das Empresas do Vinho do Porto - Assoc. of Port Wine Companies). Interview by author. Vila Nova de Gaia, 13 November 2007. Author notes. Vaughn, Linda, Visitor Center Director, W. & J. Graham & Ca., S.A. (Symington Family Estates) Email response to short survey, 12 November 2007.
139
Appendix "A" PORT WINE LODGE MUSEUM SUMMARY Company: Burmester Parent Company: Sogevinus (Spanish) Website: http://www.burmesterporto.com/index.htm Distance from Riverfront: ca. 1 kilometer Entry Fee: Free Museum Access: only during tour Museum Location: entrance to cellars Use during tour? Yes, as introduction & orientation. Description: Dedicated space, separate from cellar area, containing mainly small scale winemaking equipment. Main Thematic Scope: Mainly terroir, plus wine types. Company: Cálem Parent Company: Sogevinus (Spanish) Website: http://www.calem.pt/ Distance from Riverfront: on the riverfront by bridge (Dom Luis I). Entry Fee: 2.00 euros Museum Access: only during tour Museum Location: entrance to cellars Use during tour? Yes, as introduction & orientation. Description: Dedicated space, separate from cellar area, containing mainly modern pre-fab. text panels, few artifacts + display of Vintage & other wine types. Main Thematic Scope: Terroir, company history & winemaking. Company: Croft Parent Company: Fladgate Partnership (British) Website: http://www.croftport.com/ Distance from Riverfront: 2 blocks Entry Fee: Free Museum Access: Open, except for Vintage Port museum on tour only. Museum Location: Reception & in cellars Use during tour? Reception room exhibits no. Vintage museum at end of tour. Description: (Reception) Artifacts and documents displayed in traditional vitrines + large scale photographs. (Museum) Vintage wines on storage shelves, labeled older bottles & bottle opening "tongs." Main Thematic Scope: Quality wines, historical importance of company, terroir (visual).
140
Appendix "A" Port Wine Lodge Museum Summary, cont'd Company: Ferreira Parent Company: Sogrape (Portuguese) Website: http://eng.sogrape.pt/marcas/8/historia Distance from Riverfront: On riverfront, 1 km. from bridge. Entry Fee: 2.50 euros Museum Access: Label exhibition in reception open. Mian museum only on tour. Museum Location: Reception, waiting room & at far end of cellars. Use during tour? Only map in waiting room for orientation + vintage wine exhibit in main museum. Description: (Reception) Carriage, Exhibition of bottle labels & advertising posters. (Waiting Rm.) Original demarcation stone, map & photos. (Mian Museum) Large collection of wine related artifacts, in ultra-modern exhibits - no labels. Main Thematic Scope: Company history & quality wines. Company: Graham Parent Company: Symington Family Estates (British) Website: http://www.grahams-port.com/ Distance from Riverfront: 1 km., (2 km. from bridge). Entry Fee: Free Museum Access: Reception area & basement open, barrel making exhibit only during tours. Museum Location: Reception area, in basement & in cellars. Use during tour? None. Description: (Reception) Vintage Port exhibit in vitrines, under large wood book cases + misc. documents & artifacts. Also prize wines & misc. artifacts in glass cases in center. (Cellars) Barrel making exhibit w/tools & photogtaphs. Main Thematic Scope: Company history, quality wines & barrel making. Company: Ramos Pinto Parent Company: Roederer (French) Website: http://www.ramospinto.pt/ Distance from Riverfront: On waterfront 1 km. from bridge. Entry Fee: 2.00 euros. Museum Access: Only during tour. Museum Location: Before cellars + exhibit in cellars.
141
Appendix "A" Port Wine Lodge Museum Summary, cont'd (Ramos Pinto cont'd) Use during tour? Main introduction & orientation. Description: (Main museum) "House museum" consisting of early 20th century offices & private reception area containign original fcurnishing & art works. Glassed-in roll-top desks each contain different exhibit on company history. Main Thematic Scope: Company history & Terroir. Company: Sandeman Parent Company: Sogevinus (Portuguese) Website: http://www.sandeman.com/ing/index1.html Distance from Riverfront: On waterfront, ½ km. from bridge. Entry Fee: 3.00 euros (for tour). Museum Access: Open, free entry. Museum Location: Next to reception. Use during tour? None. Description: Separate room. Half is exhibition of advertising posters, well-labeled; other half displays historic prints, vitrine w/wine related artifacts, branding irons, barrel equip. & exhibit of hand-bottling techniques. Main Thematic Scope: Company history, advertising & post-winemaking production. Company: Taylor Parent Company: Fladgate Partnership (British) Website: http://www.taylor.pt/main.htm Distance from Riverfront: 1 km., (1 ½ km. from bridge). Entry Fee: Free Museum Access: Open. Museum Location: Reception area. Use during tour? None. Description: In entry, glass case w/historic bottle exhibit. In lounge area wooden book cases w/bound documents, over traditional vitrines w/ misc. documents. In main area, vitrines w/prize wines, Late Bottled Vintage exhibit + in-house produced panel on winemaking. Main Thematic Scope: Company history, quality wines, Terroir & winemaking.
142
APPENDIX "B" Research Surveys - Revised Long Version
GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT PORT WINE MUSEUMS & PROGRAMS
Background
1. Please tell me how your tourism programs began and developed over the years.
(Diga-me, por favor,) Como começaram os seus programas turísticos e como é que estes se desenvoleram ao longo dos anos?)
Personnel
2. Please tell me about how exhibitions are created and by whom.
(Diga-me, por favor,) Como, e por quem, foram criadas as exibições? ou Como são criadas as exibições e por quem?)
Exhibits
3. Why is access to the museum open or limited?
(Por que motivo é que o acesso ao museu é aberto ou limitado?)
4. What factors and philosophy determine the format of your exhibits, such as display methods, use of interpretive text, etc?
(Que factores e qual a filosofia que determinam o formato das suas exibições, por exemplo, nos métodos de organização das demonstrações, no uso de textos interpretivos, etc.?)
Collections
5. Please tell me about your collections, how and why they are acquired, catalogued and stored.
(Por favor, fale-me sobre a suas colecções: como e por que é que foram adquiridas, catalogadas e armazenadas.)
143
Appendix "B" Research Surveys - Revised Version, continued
VISITOR SERVICES – Guided Tours
Guide Training
6. Please tell me about your guide recruitment and training.
(Por favor, fale-me sobre o recrutamento e o treino/ formação dos guias.)
Tour Content
7. Please tell me about what themes are most important in your tours and why.
(Fale-me, por favor, sobre) Quais são os temas mais importantes nas suas visitas guiadas e por quê?)
Tasting
8. How important is tasting to the overall visitor experience?
(Em que medida é que a prova do vinho é importante para a experiência dos visitantes?)
9. What percentage of visitors buys wine?
(Qual é a percentagem dos visitantes que compra vinho?)
Visits Outside Vila Nova de Gaia
10. Please tell me about your properties in the Douro valley, and whether tourism is encouraged there or not, and why.
(Por favor, fale-me das suas quintas no Vale do Douro e se o turísmo é, aí, encorajado ou não e por quê.)
Tourism Philosophy (Please answer as completely as you feel comfortable) (Por favor, responda da forma mais completa que lhe for possível.)
11. Please tell me how tourism is important to the Port wine
144
Appendix "B" Research Surveys - Revised Version, continued
trade, to your company in particular, and vice versa.
(Diga-me, por favor, ) Em que medida é que o turismo é importante para o comércio do vinho do Porto, para a sua companhia em particular e vica versa?)
12. Why do you charge (or not charge) for guided visits?
(Por que é que a entrada nas cave, e as visitas guiadas, são (ou não são) pagas?)
13. Please tell me why the museum is important to your tourism programming, and whether and why you may be expanding it.
( Diga-me, por favor, por que motivo é que o museu é importante para a sua programação turística e se está a pensar em expandi-lo ou não, e por quê.)
14. Which do you think are the strongest aspects of your museum activities, which could be improved, and how?
(Quais, em sua opinião, são os aspectos mais fortes das actividades museológicas do seu museu, quais delas poderiam ser melhoradas e como?)
15. What visitor commentary do you receive about your museum exhibits, and do you have a formal survey process?
(Que tipo de comentário fazem os visitantes sobre as suas exibições?; existe nas caves um sistema formal de fazer pesquisas de/aos visitantes?
16. Are there any internal documents, relevant to my study, that you would be willing to share or summarize?
(Existem, por acaso, quaisquer documentos internos pertinentes para a minha pesquisa, cujo conteúdo os/as senhores/as estejam disponíveis em partilhar ou resumir?)
17. Is there anything else you would like to share about your museum exhibits or other visitor services?
145
Appendix "B" Research Surveys - Revised Version, continued
(Existe qualquer outra coisa, relativa às suas exhibições ou a outros serviços turísticos, que queriam partilhar comigo?)
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP AND COOPERATION!
(Muito obrigado pela vossa ajuda e cooperação!)
If you are responding only by email, please send your response to:
(Caso responda apenas via email, envie, por favor, a sua resposta para:)
and please copy to:
(e faça, por favor, uma cópia para:)
146
APPENDIX "B" Research Surveys - Short Email Version 1-Quando começou o acolhemento turístico nos caves e por que? (When were tourist first welcomed in the lodges and why? 2-Quando se abriu o museu e por que? (When was the museum opened and why? 3-Como desenvolvia o museu, e como mudou o formato dele? (How did the museum eveolve and how did its format change? 4-Como é importante o turismo aos caves e ao commercio do Vinho do Porto? (How is tourism important to the lodges and to the Port wine industry? 5-Como é importante os caves e o commercio do Vinho do Porto ao turísmo regional do Porto? (How are the lodges and the Port wine industry important to Oporto's regional tourism?) 5-Como aumentam o museu a experiencia turística, e como é que ajudam às visitas guiadas? (How does the museum enhance the tourist experience, and how does it help guided visits?
147
Appendix "C" Upper Douro Valley Demarcated Region
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
http://espanol.vacationstogo.com/cruiseports/viewport.cfm?port=1074
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
www.bar-do-binho.com/ port/douro.htm
148
Appendix "D" Douro Valley Images (Images: Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e do Porto
http://www.ivp.pt/index.asp?idioma=0 )
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
River Valley Terraces
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Terraces "Mortórios"
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.
Barcos de Rabelo loading Vila Nova de Gaia (author)
149
APPENDIX "E"
Images of the Cellars - Imágems das caves
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Cellars or Caves
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Casks or Pipas
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Vats or Balseiros
150
APPENDIX "F"
BURMESTER
Burmester museum - machines Burmester museum - map & schist
Burmester museum - bottler Burmester museum - posters
151
APPENDIX "G"
CÁLEM
Cálem museum - history panel Cálem museum - winemaking & Vintages
Cálem museum - types of wine Cálem tasting room
152
APPENDIX "H"
CROFT
Croft museum - reception Croft museum - photo & case display
Croft museum - letters display Croft museum - display of alms box
153
APPENDIX "I"
FERREIRA
Ferreira museum - reception Ferreira museum - waiting room
Ferreira museum - equipment Ferreira museum - cases
154
APPENDIX "J"
GRAHAM'S
Graham's museum - Vintage exhibit Graham's museum - reception
Graham's museum - basement
155
APPENDIX "K"
RAMOS PINTO
Ramos Pinto museum - entrance Ramos Pinto museum - exhibits
Ramos Pinto museum - display Ramos Pinto museum - reception "throne"
156
APPENDIX "L"
SANDEMAN
Sandeman museum - exhibits Sandeman museum - exhibits
Sandeman museum - bottling Sandeman museum - poster 1929 equipment
157
APPENDIX "M"
TAYLOR'S
Taylor's museum - bottles Taylor's museum - reception
Taylor's museum - document exhibit Taylor's museum - winemaking
158
Richard Bradley, B.A. (Final Product - English Version) Masters Degree Candidate Travessa do Entroncamento, 42 4595 Seroa Ms. Ema Pinto, Promotional Office Association of Port Wine Companies (AEVP) Rua Dr. António Granjo, 207 4400-124 Vila Nova de Gaia Dear Ms. Pinto, It has been my pleasure to have conducted a study over the last six months for my masters degree thesis at John F. Kennedy University in the U.S., of museum activities in Port wine lodges in Vila Nova de Gaia, whose tourism programs are certified by the AEVP. It is evident that great effort has been made developing tourist facilities in the lodges, particularly with guided tours and tastings. Their museum exhibits also convey the importance of the Port wine industry to the history and culture of the region, as well as the great variety and quality of the wines it produces. One key to Port lodge tourism facilities is differentiating each from the other, while still conveying the company and industry message. My thesis shows how their museum exhibits have all developed along different lines, and have unique styles and formats. I believe that all these formats are equally valid, and have the potential to be effective means of communication and education. My University has suggested that I present the results of my research at the AEVP, and to discuss with lodge tourism staff what my study revealed about maximizing their exhibits' effectiveness, while still maintaining the unique character and ambience of their facilities. I am relocating to the Oporto area, joining my family in Seroa in March 2008, and I look forward to discussing my thesis with you. I will be available to make my presentation on a date of your choosing in late April or early May, before the high tourism season begins. I welcome any comments or suggestions regarding developing future collaborative contacts among Port wine lodge staff regarding museum exhibits. With best regards,
159
Richard Bradley, B.A. ( Final Product - Portuguese Version) Candidato a Mestrado Travessa do Entroncamento, 42 4595 Seroa Sra. Ema Pinto, Promotional Office Association of Port Wine Companies (AEVP) Rua Dr. António Granjo, 207 4400-124 Vila Nova de Gaia Exma. Sra. Pinto, Foi, realmente, com grande prazer que, ao longo dos últimos seis meses, me dediquei ao tema de estudo da minha tese de mestrado a decorrer na Universidade John F. Kennedy nos Estados Unidos, cuja temática versa sobre a importância dos museus nas caves do vinho do Porto da cidade de Vila Nova de Gaia e cujos programas turísticos estão certificados pela AEVP. É, sem dúvida, evidente que foram empreendidos grandes esforços no desenvolvimento de programas turísticos nas caves, particularmente no que diz respeito às visitas guiadas e às provas de vinhos. As exposições apresentadas nos seus museus demonstram, igualmente, a importância da indústria do vinho do Porto para a história e cultura da região, assim como a grande variedade e qualidade dos vinhos que produz. Um aspecto importante, no que diz respeito ao turismo proporcionado pelas caves do vinho do Porto, é a diversidade que apresentam entre si, sem, no entanto, deixarem de partilhar a mensagem central que as liga à industria e à companhia que representam. A minha tese demonstra a forma como as suas exposições museológicas se desenvolveram, todas elas seguindo linhas diferentes, possuindo, no entanto, cada uma delas um estilo e formato únicos. Acredito que todos os diferentes formatos são válidos, tendo, cada um deles, o potencial para serem meios de educação e de comunicação eficazes. A minha Universidade sugeriu que eu apresentasse os resultados da minha pesquisa na AEVP. Salientou, também, que seria importante discutir, com o pessoal responsável pelo turismo das caves, os resultados revelados pela minha tese no que diz respeito à maximização da eficácia das suas exibições, mantendo-se, ao mesmo tempo, a atmosfera e o carácter únicos do seu espaço. Vou mudar-me em breve para a região da cidade do Porto, mais propriamente para a freguesia de Seroa, no concelho de Paços de Ferreira, onde me vou juntar à
160
minha família a partir de Março de 2008. Fico a aguardar com grande ansiedade a possibilidade de falar sobre a minha tese consigo. Estarei disponível para fazer a apresentação da minha tese a partir de fins de Abril, princípios de Maio, numa data à sua escolha e, claro, antes que se inicie a época alta do turismo local. Quaisquer comentários ou sugestões, no que diz respeito ao desenvolvimento de futuras trocas e contactos de colaboração, da minha parte, com o pessoal das caves no que concerne a exposições museológicas, serão muito bem vindos. Com os melhores cumprimentos,
161