port house which, in the second half of the 20th century, became the brand leader in the important British market with its Special Reserve ruby. The house was founded in 1815 by Robert Cockburn and George Wauchope, who were joined in 1828 by Captain William Greig and a year later by Robert Cockburn’s sons Archibald and Alexander, who opened an office in London. In 1845, the brothers Henry and John Smithes joined the company, which became Cockburn Smithes and Co. John Smithes initiated an organized system of records for blending. He married Eleanor Cobb and both Smithes and Cobb families remained in the firm for many generations. The last family member Peter Cobb joined Cockburn’s in 1960, became a director of the company in Oporto in 1980, and retired in 1999. In 1962, Cockburn’s became an associate company of harveys of bristol and, subsequently, part of the Allied-Domecq conglomerate (until 2005). It is now part of a new American company, Beam Wine Estates of the US 2005. In 1961 Harveys had bought Martinez Gassiot, transforming the two houses from fierce competitors to partners. Cockburn had a fine reputation, commanding high prices, for their vintage ports in the mid 20th century, but had some unconventional views on vintage port declarations: it released the lighter 1967 rather than 1966 against the popular vote (Martinez joined it) but decided against declaring 1977 and 1980 before releasing a 1983. Cockburn’s have long sourced wines in the higher reaches of the douro and reinforced this tradition with the purchase, in 1978, of 169 ha/418 acres of land (126 ha planted) at Vilariça, where important viticultural experiments were carried out, in particular trial of various clones of touriga nacional. This work was particularly useful when in 1989 the company acquired Quinta dos Canais, a 261-ha property on the north bank of the Douro, which has long provided the backbone of Cockburn’s vintage port but which needed extensive renovation and replanting. In 2006 the symingtons bought the Cockburn vineyards and took over the entire company from Beam Global in 2010. Vilariça is now used for the production of unfortified Douro wine and the Symingtons are working to rebuild Cockburn’s reputation as a producer of vintage port.
