The prehistory of the firm of Fonseca Guimaraens lies in the late 1700s, in a company known as Fonseca & Monteiro, located in Oporto. The Fonseca family, of Brazilian origin, conducted its trade in wine, foodstuffs, olive oil and cloth primarily with Brazil in exchange for sugar cane, hemp and snuff from the colonies. The present firm was not formally founded until 1822, when Manuel Pedro Guimaraens acquired control of the company through purchase of the majority of the Fonseca holdings. Born on June 6th, 1798, in the town of Sao Romão da Ucha, Barcelos, Manuel Pedro travelled extensively to Brazil, both for his own account and that of Fonseca & Monteiro, in the commerce of general merchandise. By the 1820s, Fonseca & Monteiro dealt solely in port wines. As a condition of the sale of his shares to young Guimaraens, the departing Fonseca stipulated that his name be retained not only as a brand name, but also as a family name for whoever should own the business.
Records of the company's early years under "MPG", as he is affectionately called by his descendants, were largely destroyed during the years of political upheaval which plagued Portugal until the mid-1830s. It is known that Angelica Monteiro and João dos Santos Fonseca held some interest in the company until the beginning of that decade. More is known about Manuel Pedro Guimaraens' political activities. By age 21 he had already become deeply involved in the liberal movement which swept Europe in the wake of the French Revolution of 1789. When the civil war known as "The War of Two Brothers", broke out between the reigning absolutist, Dom Miguel, and supporters of his liberalist brother, Dom Pedro, Manuel Pedro was already a close friend and ally of the liberal militant leaders in northern Portugal. Forced to flee the country several times, in 1834 he departed Portugal for the last time, smuggled aboard a ship bound for London in an empty port pipe.
Exiled in London, he continued his advocacy of the Liberal cause before the Court of Saint James and Parliament, and organized a system through which funds could secretly be channeled from Portugal to Portuguese political refugees throughout Europe. The success of the liberal revolution of 1832 was so greatly aided by Manuel Pedro's contribution that in 1835, Portugal's new queen, Dona Maria da Gloria II, named him Member and later Knight Commander of the Order of Christ. Though by this time married to a British woman and permanently settled in London, Manuel Pedro Guimaraens never relinquished his Portuguese citizenship. Still staunchly patriotic, he divided the hours not devoted to Fonseca, Monteiro & Guimaraens among politics, lavish entertaining and an expertise on pelagoniums, which led him to become one of the early members of the Royal Botanical Society. The headquarters of his rapidly expanding company were moved to London. Over the next two decades, with the assistance of his eldest son, Manuel Fonseca Guimaraens, Manuel Pedro developed the British, Dutch, Belgian and Scandinavian markets. By 1840, Fonseca had become the second largest exporter of port wines; near the end of that decade, the firm shipped its first vintage port, the 1847, to England.
In 1862, following Manuel Pedro's death in 1858, Manuel Fonseca and his two younger brothers, Pedro Goncalves and Fredrico Alexandre, bought out the Monteiro interest and amalgamated the British and Portuguese branches of the firm, previously separated for political reasons. In 1927 the London office was dissolved and the headquarters re-established in Portugal. Over the next two decades, the exceptional consistency and worldwide reputation for quality of Fonseca's ports was perpetuated by Patrick Guimaraens, who remained the company's promoter in London, and his cousin Frank Guimaraens, who controlled production in Vila Nova de Gaia.
In 1948, the difficulties of the war years led to a consolidation of ownership of Fonseca Guimaraens with Taylor, Fladgate & Yeatman. For two firms hitherto so solidly independent and whose house styles were so distinct from each other, this common ownership was virtually unnoticeable.
The individuality and consistency of character of each brand is dictated by numerous factors, most important of which are the different sources of grapes from which the wines of each house are made. Fonseca may indeed be unique in the annals of port in that every Fonseca Vintage Port, except the 1955, produced by Dorothy Guimaraens, was made by one of two persons: Frank Guimaraens, from the 1896 through the 1948 vintage; and Bruce Duncan Guimaraens, present Vice Chairman, Winemaker and great-great grandson of the founder, from the 1960 vintage since. This remarkable continuity of winemaker is clearly evident in the wine.
Consistency of style has remained one of the fundamental principles of the Fonseca philosophy since its founding. The firm has traditionally purchased wines from the same growers whose operations have been under its control. The practice of shippers investing in vinification equipment to make their own wines from purchased grapes is a phenomenon only prevalent since the mid 1960s.
With the still increasing demand for port in general, and particularly for vintage ports, which began in the early 1970s, it became obvious to the more enlightened houses that consistent supplies of high-quality grapes would be seriously jeopardized unless they took decisive measures to secure their own resources. Fonseca Guimaraens has acted strongly on this belief, and during the 1970s purchased three exceptional quintas, all classified grade "A", which continue to strengthen its position. These superb properties are among the finest in the Douro.
The Quinta de Cruziero has for decades been the heart of Fonseca's vintage ports. In 1973, the company purchased this extraordinary property from the heirs of the recently deceased proprietor. Located in the panoramic Mendiz Valley in the Cima Corgo area of the Upper Douro, it covers 45 acres of vertiginous hillsides, of which 32.5 are planted in terraces, primarily in older vines. These 47,000 vines produce an average of 350 hectoliters of port wine a year. Contracts with adjacent vineyards contribute an additional 595 hectolitres to production.
In 1978 Fonseca acquired the Quinta do Panascal, a property located in the spectacularly beautiful Tavora Valley, also in the Cima Corgo to the south of the Douro River. At present, 67 of its 97 acres are planted, supporting 114,800 vines which produce 860 hectolitres of must annually. Adjacent vineyards produce another 196 hectolitres. New plantings at Panascal continue to focus principally on Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa and Tinta Roriz.
The third Fonseca property, the Quinta de Santo António, has also long been a traditional source for Fonseca's vintage ports. Purchased in 1979, it is located on the opposite bank of the Tavora Valley not far from Cruziero and covers 30 acres of sheer hillside terraces, the last 7.5 of which were planted in vines as of 1989 to contribute to the 1992 vintage. Santo António's 47,330 vines contribute a further 87 hectolitres of wine to total production.
Of the 48 grape varieties licensed to produce port wine, only five are considered to be aristocrats. These five great red vines of the Douro, the Touriga Nacional, Touriga Francesa, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Cão, Tinta Barroca and a sixth, the somewhat lesser Tinta Amarela, account for an extremely high 91.3 percent of the Fonseca quintas' total plantings, averaging a yield, over the three properties, of only 24.2 hectolitres per hectare. As of the 1992 harvest, these were apportioned as shown in the following table:
| Location | QUINTA DE
CRUZEIRO | QUINTA DE
SANTO ANTÓNIO | QUINTA DO
PANASCAL | TOTAL |
Area
District
Parish
Total Area(Ha)
Planted Area(Ha)
Vines in Production | Cima Corgo
Alijó
Vale Mendez
18.0
13.0
47,000 | Cima Corgo
Alijó
Vale Mendez
12.0
12.0
47,330 | Cima Corgo
Tabuacão
Valenca
38.8
27.0
114,800 |
70.0
52.0
209,130 |
| Varieties Planted | | | | |
* Touriga Nacional
* Touriga Francesa
* Tinta Roriz
* Tinta Cão
* Tinta Barroca
* Tinta Amarela
* Others | 1.5%
27.5%
25.0%
7.0%
17.0% (78%)
15.0% (93%)
7.0% | 8.0%
26.5%
26.5%
4.0%
17.0% (69%)
4.0% (86%)
14.0% | 18.5%
23.1%
30.7% 18.1% (80%)
7.7%
1.9% | ---
---
78.3%
91.3%
|
Average Production
Fonseca Vineyards | | | | |
* Hectolitres/hectare
* Must/Port (Hl) | 21.6
281/351 | 23.2
209/261 | 25.5
688/860 | 23.4
1,178/1,472 |
| Contracted Adjacent Vineyards | | | | |
| * Must/Port (Hl) | 476/595 | 42/53 | 157/196 | 675/844 |
| Total Vineyards | | | | |
| * Must/Port (Hl) | 757/946 | 323/404 | 432/540 | 1,512/1,890 |
| | | | |
Under Bruce Guimaraens' experienced direction, new plantings of Fonseca's vineyards have focused on "batch" planting of the top five varietals. Batch planting affords not only the advantage of harvesting the varieties efficiently at optimum maturity and vinifying them separately, but also naturally coincides with planting each varietal in microclimates and exposures best suited to it. In declared vintage years, it is the finest grapes from the Fonseca quintas which are the backbone of Fonseca's vintage ports. Hand picked and trodden by foot in the traditional stone "lagares" at Quinta de Cruzeiro and Quinta do Panascal, they also form the base of Fonseca Guimaraens' vintage port in very fine but undeclared years, and significantly contribute to their stocks of Aged Tawny, Late Bottled Vintage and Bin No. 27 Vintage Character Port.
In January, after the young wine has fallen bright during the cold Douro winter, Fonseca performs a complete technical and organoleptic analysis to classify the wines according to their potential, independent of the mandatory examination carried out by the Port Wine Institute for the legal grading of the wines. Lighter ports will be earmarked for young wood ports; full, concentrated, deeply-colored ports classified for Late Bottled Vintage or Bin No. 27; and exceptionally intense ports of outstanding quality graded "vintage potential."
Fonseca Guimaraens produces a full range of superb wood ports, including the youthful, fruity and well balanced Ruby and Tawny; Siroco Extra Dry White port, a crisp, finely structured, delicately sweet aperitif port. Fonseca's Bin No. 27 is the firm's standard bearer and is justifiably one of the best-known vintage character ports in the world; its rich, aromatic bouquet, intense color, excellent depth and "grip" epitomize its category. Fonseca Late Bottled Vintage, first created in the 1983 vintage, is an exceptionally full-bodied L.B.V. with a firm tannic backbone and lush, explosive fruit character.
True to the classic Fonseca style, the house's range of Ten, Twenty, Thirty and Over Forty Year Old Aged Tawnies are elegant, beautifully balanced ports, with an alluring, feminine complexity offset by the perfect touch of acidity. Fonseca and Fonseca Guimaraens Vintage Ports are the embodiment of the Fonseca style, easily ranked among the greatest vintage ports. They show a lush fruit intensity and a structure of both great dimension and finesse. More voluptuous than massive, they are coveted for their sumptuous yet refined full body. Among the Douro's first growths, Fonseca is clearly the "Pétrus" of Port.
