Martinez

The Newmans' connection with port dates from 1735, the year in which the partnership of Holdsworth, Newman and Olive (later to become Hunt Roope and Company) was established in Oporto.

They have a distinguished history in trade and seafaring.  Sir Francis Drake married a Miss Newman in 1560.  At the time of the Armada, in which Newman ships played their part, the family was already doing a barter business between Portugal and Newfoundland - selling wine and buying cod to be dried and salted to become bacalhau, Portugal's favourite delicacy.  In addition to ships, they owned properties in St John's and Oporto, along with their native Dartmouth in South West England.

Three hundred years ago a Newman vessel laden with wine for London was chased by a French Privateer and eventually had to run for shelter in the Comany's Newfoundland Plantation.  After wintering there, she continued to London, where it was discovered that the wine had developed a bouquet, smoothness and fine flavour that it never had before.  Then in 1813 Newman's brig "The Duck" was involved in a famous sea battle with the American frigate "Chesapeake".  Members of the Duck's crew were tranferred to H M frigate "Shannon" and gave such a good account of themselves that the Newmans were allowed to fly the White Ensign over their headquarters in Newfoundland.

Hunt Roope started buying the wine from the Quinta da Eira Velha, a magnificent property overlooking the town of Pinhao in the Upper Douro, in 1809 and bought it outright in 1834.  Prior to this it was owned by the Archbishop of Braga, who leased it to successive generations of the Correia family for a nominal rent - and a good, fat chicken!

The fine wine from the Quinta became the basis of Hunt Roope's vintage port, traditionally sold under the brand Tuke Holdsworth.  When the Company was sold in 1956, the Newman family kept the Quinta.  Peter and Richard Newman, the present owners, still take a close interest in the running of the property, though day-to-day management is undertaken by Martinez Gassiot.  In years when the wine is particularly good, the port of the Quinta is bottled as vintage port.  In addition to the 1995, recent examples have been 1978,82, 87, 92 and 94.