Grape expectations: explore Portugal's greatest bottles with this new wine club
Focused around Port and Portuguese wines from one of the country’s most historic names, Matriarca will provide members with exclusive access and benefits...
Words: Gentleman's Journal
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It was in 1882 when Andrew James Symington, at the age of just 19, made what was to prove a momentous decision, moving from Scotland to Portugal to set up a small shipping trade for Port. Britain had all but invented Port back in the late 17th century, when war with the French and preferential trading rates saw British merchants turn to the Douro Valley for their vinous supply. By opting to strengthen the wines with brandy, in order to survive the trip up river to Porto and then to British shores, the merchants established what remains the fortified-wine’s largest market.
A decade after his arrival in the Douro, Symington made an even smarter move, marrying Beatrice Leitão de Carvalhosa Atkinson, the daughter of a Port producer and merchant – and, as a result, the family business started to take shape. Half-Portuguese, half-British, Beatrice was known for her generosity of spirit and joyful gatherings around food and wine – an approach that has defined the business throughout the five generations that have followed the family matriarch. And, it is that spirit that sits at the heart of a new initiative.
Matriarca is a new members' club founded by the Symington family and is inspired by the family’s original matriarch. Twice a year, members will receive a curated selection of six premium wines and Ports from the Symington portfolio, along with the odd added extra from other Portuguese wineries who are friends of the family. There will also be access to a private online wine shop that offers older vintages, limited editions and recent releases not readily available elsewhere in the UK, plus invitations to exclusive events and tastings in the UK and Portugal.
Over the years, the Symington range has gradually expanded, via the acquisition of Port houses Warre’s, in 1905; Dow's, in 1912; Graham's, in 1970; and Cockburn's, in 2010. Alongside this growth has come the expansion of the family’s vineyard holdings to supply the individual houses, as well as four quintas that produce non-fortified Portuguese wines. Today, Symington is the leading vineyard holder in the Douro Valley.
Such a portfolio makes for a broad and complex range of styles. Four different houses, each with its own individual characteristics, and a host of Ports from Tawny to Colheita to Vintage, plus a range of table wines spanning the wide array of Portuguese grape varieties – what better way to explore such rich options, then, than having someone else do the hard work for you?
Alongside the famed Ports from the Symingtons' four renowned houses, members will also be able to discover the increasingly reputed red wines of the Douro. Such was the domination of Port within the valley that the category of such ‘still wines’ – as they were known in order to differentiate them from fortified wines – was illegal until the 1990s. It has since spearheaded a huge growth in the quality and quantity of Portuguese wine as a whole, and the Symingtons’ holdings, recently joined by estates in Alentejo and Vinho Verde, sit at the heart of the movement.
Moreover, part of the Matriarca events programme includes an annual visit to one of the family’s estates, where members can enjoy further discounts and benefits at the family restaurants, cellars and wineries, as well as at a selection of partner properties.
As Charlotte Symington, a member of the fifth generation of the family, says: “Matriarca was born out of a desire to create a community around a shared passion. We want to create a small, dynamic community of people from Portugal and the UK – the two countries that represent my family – to celebrate the very best of Portugal.” And, what better way to do so than through exploring the rich diversity of the country’s wines?
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