The Fladgate Partnership’s new wine list

The Yeatman

After two sizzling hot days visiting vineyards in the Douro, as part of a group of wine writers, guests of The Fladgate Partnership (Taylor’s, Croft’s, Fonseca), it was a relief to be back in Porto. For centuries, the city has been home to port shippers who have benefitted from the cooler, fresher Atlantic climate to age their ports in cavernous warehouses, or ‘lodges’, in the city’s Vila Nova de Gaia district. In recent decades, modern cooling methods and legislative change have made possible the ageing of port in the Douro, enabling some lodges to be repurposed for wine tourism, or hospitality.

The Fladgate Partnership has spearheaded Porto’s rise as a must-visit European wine tourism destination, in 2010 opening Portugal’s first and pre-eminent wine hotel, The Yeatman.

The Yeatman aerial view

The balcony of my room is generous enough to host a cocktail party and the view absolutely mesmerizing: a cascade of many-coloured townhouses and churches tumbles down the opposite slope of the Douro River, connected to Gaia by the magnificent iron double-deck Dom Luís I Bridge. I slip through a small gate down a path to the decanter-shaped infinity pool. As the sun sets over the river, I indulge in the glorious sensation of swimming among the roofs of the city.

Everything about The Yeatman summons superlatives. A dreamy bed, my egg at breakfast poached to perfection and served by friendly staff. Conversation at the neighbouring table touches on the previous night’s Trump/Harris debate. With the opening of more frequent direct flights to the United States, The Yeatman has seen a surge in American guests in the last couple of years.

A wine red folder in my room contains a surprise: two complementary tickets to the Dali Universe Exhibition in the extensive nearby World of Wine cultural district (WoW), another landmark Fladgate project, opened in 2020.

The works in the Dali exhibition have been loaned almost entirely from private collections, most never shown in public before. Uncontestably a brilliant draftsman, visitors can decide for themselves whether Dali was entertaining showman, or significant contributor to one of the 20th century’s most influential international art movements, Surrealism.

Principal GRB 2015, Colinas de São Lourenço

This visitor particularly appreciated Dali’s design for the 1958 Château Mouton Rothschild label (the year was a fairly good vintage in Bordeaux and a partially declared vintage for port), and a cheeky cartoon film made in collaboration with Walt Disney. In characteristic equivocal mode, Dali once declared “a real connoisseur does not drink wine but tastes its secrets”. The Dali exhibition is open until October 31.

In 2023, The Fladgate Partnership embarked on a dramatic diversification from the company’s traditional métier of port production, acquiring IdealDrinks, a portfolio of premium Portuguese wine properties constituted by Swiss watch entrepreneur Carlos Dias, to create Fladgate Still & Sparkling Wines. This new division is promoting Portugal’s position as a world-class producer, employing the logo ‘Proudly Produced in Portugal’. The new owners have inherited the talents of Bordeaux wine consultant Pascal Chatonnet, and wine estates in the Vinho Verde, Bairrada, Dão and Douro wine regions.

Quinta do Portal, near Sabrosa in the Douro’s Pinhão Valley, comes with a small hotel, gastronomic restaurant and the distinction of a winery designed by the great Porto architect Álvaro Siza Vieira. Furthermore, much of the vineyard is on reasonably flat terrain, permitting labour-saving mechanization, a valuable rarity in this hilly part of the Douro. Plans are in motion to create a visitors centre with what promises to be a stunning shaded rooftop terrace with a view over the surrounding countryside.

Quinta Colinas São Lourenço, in Bairrada, is the portfolio’s flagship property. With its moderate Atlantic climate and limestone or clay soils, Bairrada is sometimes compared to Bordeaux. Over 55 hectares, the property has a mix of international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Petit Verdot, as well as Portugal’s iconic Touriga Nacional. Grapes will be vinified to produce the brand Principal.

Dali Universe Exhibition, World of Wine

Sparkling wines will also be produced here, using the traditional Champagne method and branded as Colinas – the estate is already ramping up its Chardonnay production for this purpose. At tasting, the Colinas Brut Nature 2019 showed fine bubbles, a delicate nose of apples and citrus fruit with notes of dried fruits – a perfect aperitif. The entire vineyard is dry farmed.

Surrounded by protective mountains, the Dão with its granitic soils and excellent ageing potential is often referred to as the Burgundy of Portugal. Quinta de Bella, at 380 metres in altitude and also entirely dry farmed, will produce a range of single varietal wines, including Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Touriga Nacional and Cabernet Franc.

Vinho Verde is the largest wine region in Portugal, extending from south of Porto up to the frontier with the Spanish province of Galicia. Temperatures are mild, rain plentiful and the region’s often granitic soils are producing increasingly excellent whites. Quinta da Pedra, in the sub-region of Monção and Melgaço, close to the Spanish frontier, is producing Alvarinhos and Loureiros with elegant minerality and exciting ageing potential.

Further south, near Braga, the Paço de Palmeira estate has a splendid historic strawberry-coloured palace built for the archbishops of Braga. This is Loureiro country, an expressive variety ideal for long ageing.

The week following our press trip saw horrific wildfires in several areas of Central and Northern Portugal, including the Douro. In an email, The Fladgate Partnership CEO, Adrian Bridge, commented: “Smoke haze will have had practically no impact on the grapes still to be harvested and the wines being made. Fortunately, most of our grapes had been harvested before the rains on Friday, September 20, which put out fires and cleaned the air – 7mm in Pinhão and as much as 20mm at Quinta de Vargellas. The year so far has produced outstanding quality and we are delighted with the ports made, some of the most promising young ports we have seen in the last three decades.”

First published Portugal Resident October 2024