🍷 Kopke

Kopke is a Port house based in Vila Nova de Gaia, which Wikidata gives as its location. According to the house, its story begins with a journey from Hamburg to Portugal by Nicolau Kopkë in 1636; in 1638 he settled in Portugal as Consul General of the Hanseatic League, and the first bottles were shipped to northern Europe. The house calls itself the oldest Port wine house, a claim it says was confirmed by a certificate of a Portuguese commercial association in 1940.

According to the house, in 1781 the company bought a farm in the Douro and moved from buying wine to large-scale production; in 1841 it took the name C. N. Kopke, and in 1922 Quinta de São Luiz was acquired. It makes Port wines and Douro still wines.

According to the house, the move into production in 1781 made Port its main business, with the wines produced and shipped in-house. It adds that in 1828 Cristiano Nicolau Kopke, a great-great-grandson of the founder, sided with the Liberal Party in the civil war, that he was made Baron of Vilar in 1836, and that his nephew Joaquim Augusto Kopke became Baron of Massarelos around 1846. The certificate of 1940 came from the Portuguese Commercial and Industrial Association.

The house says Quinta de São Luiz is the production site of all its DOC Douro wines, and that a long-standing tradition there was to paint its stone walls white once a year. Its website presents the portfolio as Port Wines, Douro DOC Wines, The Library Collection and Kopke On Ice, together with a Winemaker's Collection from São Luiz, and describes Casa Kopke as the house's home in the heart of Gaia.

Port is a wine with a protected designation of origin (PDO) from the Douro Demarcated Region. Grape spirit stops the fermentation, so at least 17.5 g/l of sugar remains; the strength is 19–22% vol.

Why it matters to you. “The oldest Port house” is the house's own claim, while categories such as Colheita or Vintage are set by the rules. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.