general case of free trade that pervades all the members of the Associaçào Comercial do
Porto, across different industries, and the third one is about the regulations of the port-wine
production, transport and trade that concern the producers in the Douro, the merchants in Vila
Nova de Gaia and Porto.20 I will tackle each of these themes now.
A subject of heating debates in the port-wine trade was the use ob brandy and the
problems of getting the right brandy at the right time. Brandy was that indispensable article
for the port-wine (Bennett 2005). Indeed, brandy or spirit (usually wine spirit) was added to
the wine at several occasions (vintage time, transport time from the Douro, arrival at Vila
Nova de Gaia and shipping time).21
It is important here to understand that port-wine is a special wine, a fortified wine, i.e.,
one to which it is added spirit, usually wine spirit of brandy. This permitted to increase the
alcohol content of the wine, to transport better the wine, to avoid spoilage and the negative
effects of summer heat. The usual amount of wine spirit that was added varied greatly, but in
general between 10 to 20 per cent. The production of brandy was usually made from wine and
between 5 to 10 pipes of wine were necessary for making one pipe of brandy, depending of
the quality of the wine used. 22
The problem of brandy is a constant one from the 1760s, at least since port-wine is
port, to the 1930s. This is basically a problem of supply both in terms of quantity and quality.
Controlled by the Companhia Geral during the 1760s through the 1800s that exercised a
monopoly for producing it in the Northern provinces that the Douro river crosses. Often, the
brandy was not supplied in sufficient quantities, at the convenient time (from October to
November and January to March, then later when wine was already in Vila Nova de Gaia)
and finally sometime of low or uncertain quality. This latter case has to do with the use of
either spirits not coming from wine or contraband brandy.
There was a serious risk of spoiling the wine if brandy was not added properly at the
20 During the period under review, Vila Nova de Gaia was already the main deposit of port-wine but most of the
merchants, especially the British merchants had residence in the city of Porto where the majority of commercial
transactions occured: buying wine spirit, wine, meeting at the British Association, etc.
21 It must be say that brandy is strictly speaking wine spirit (from the Dutch brand wijn, burnt wine or distilled
wine at a time the Dutch were changing the wine trade in Europe and introduced the distillation of wine in
several wine producing countries). The general word for aguardente is spirit and wine spirit is translated as
aguardente vnica. Besides spirit from wine, there are other types of spirits form cereals that were later used in
the port-wine production but were usually considered lower quality and able to spoil the good vintages. So the
word brandy is often used as synonymous of spirit. This is a general practice in the port-wine trade.
22 Norman Bennett studied extensively the use of brandy in the port-wine, filling a very important gap in the
systematic understanding of the evolution of the port-wine in the last three centuries (Bennett 2005).
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