Personalities

Dominic Symington: Instinct gets us to the ideas…
"Vitrina" №10 November 2005

The Symington family knows everything about port production.

At least seven members of the family are involved in business, and The Symington Family Port Companies own such prestigious brands as Graham’s, Dow’s, Warre’s, Quinta do Vesuvio. Dominic Symington gave his first interview in Russia for the readers of Vitrina.

- Your business is one of the most influential in the Douro Valley, and it is still concentrated in the hands of one family. How are the responsibilities distributed between the members?

- Indeed, we are now the 4th generation of the family involved in the business. The family looks after the production and the sales side. Then we have a management team to run the back office. My cousin Peter and his son Charles do all the vineyard management and the winemaking. My brother Paul and myself, and then Johnny, Rupert and Clare look after the commercial side, marketing and sales.
We are a family business. I have inherited it from my father, and my father had it from his father. The first Symington arrived in Portugal in 1882, over a hundred and thirty years ago. We have been involved in the port trade ever since. All the critical parts of the business are controlled by members of the family. There is no one who is more important than the other. We work on an equal basis, and we are involved in every aspect. Once we release a vintage, for example, Peter and Charles form the production committee. The rest of us go and taste with them, and we make our comments.

- How did the company acquire so many different brands?

- The reason why we don’t actually have a Symington port as such is because all the companies are historical companies. They have been in existence before we arrived. Warre’s was started in 1670. My great grandfather became a partner in Warre’s in the end of the previous century. He became a shareholder in the business and eventually bought the whole company. Then it was one of those accidents in history that my great grandfather’s very good friend was called George Warre, and he owned the Dow’s port company. Mr. Warre suggested that they do a swap, so they sold to each other 50% of their company. Thus the Symington family acquired Dow’s — which by then was an established name.
As a family philosophy we have always believed what the business is more important than ourselves. I am just a person, and the company has history and tradition. Although we did actually put our name on the label of Quinta do Vesuvio. We called it Symington’s Quinta de Vesuvio.

- It sounds as if first generations had a long going plan for the family.

- No, most of it came about naturally. Of course, the story about my great grand father and his friend is curious. But over the years the Warre’s family have gradually been selling their shares to us. By early 1960s they were completely out of the business. And then in 1970 the Graham’s port business had some financial difficulty and we bought the company. It was a slow thing, but the company is 100 percent privately owned by my family.

- Possibly, it’s because each one of us doesn’t consider himself an individual owner. We think, ’I don’t own the company. I am only looking after the company. My father passes it to me, and I have a duty to pass it on to my children in a better condition than when it was given to me’. We always strive to do better.

- Have you ever been driven by instinct for decisions?

- A lot of our business is instinct to be honest. Obviously, we have experience as well. For example, my father is eighty, and he’s been in business for 50 years. I still ring him up and ask his opinion about this or that. Naturally, I have own ideas but it is important to get his point of view. Certainly the conditions of work have changed from what they were 30-40 years ago. The world is moving so fast. Experience of previous generations may differ, but they have gut feeling.
One of the advantages of a family is that we can decide quickly. We can be flexible in what we do. If I see an opportunity, I call other members, and we go and do it. Often instinct gets us to the ideas when it is worth making an effort. For instance, my uncle first went on a sales trip to the United States in 1969. Total port industry in the US was then about 500 cases. The figure today is 400,000, and we have a third market share. The uncle’s work was missionary, but for him it was a gut feeling, and it brought results.

- How do members of the family get positions — though appointments or by own choice?

-It tends to be that people fit into the position. But no member of the family can join the company unless he has something to contribute. It doesn’t happen by merit of being a son or a daughter. Before joining the family business every single one of us has always worked outside the company for 5-7 years. I actually worked in France, the US and the UK. One of my cousins worked as a banker in the City of London, so we all have something to give to the company.
The company is not a small family enterprise, but quite a big business. We have about 17% world market share in the port business. We are the largest company divided across our main brands. Within those brands we are leaders in the quality field as well. Together with 4-5 other port companies we are like the equivalent of the first growths in Bordeaux. My family is so very proud of this but we have to work very hard to make sure that we keep our position as the leaders. You know, you can lose in one minute.

- What are the differences between your main brands?

- We have several brands — Dow’s, Graham’s, Warre’s, Quinta do Vesuvio and a couple of less known names. The basic difference is they are traditional, historical companies from many years ago and they all have their own vineyard properties. So the wines, as we say, are terroir driven. They get their character and style from the vineyard properties. Each has a separate winery.
A port shipper works a little bit like a negociant, whereas we buy wines from various properties. Yet the style and the character of each individual house comes from the terroir. If you look at Graham’s, the wines are normally very rich, very ripe, full and quite sweet. On the other side, Warre’s are not such powerful wines but they are full or finesse and elegance. Warre’s is much more true to itself — when it young is what you will see in 30 years time. Young Dow’s is quite difficult to taste, it is quite aggressive. When it’s older, it then comes into its own, it becomes more mellow and softer with time.
Over the years we’ve bought properties and now have just under 600 hectares in the Douro Valley. If a property comes up, we know pretty much the style of the wines that it makes. We then attach that property to the company that makes stylistically closest wines.

- There are more single quinta available on the market than ever before. The wines have sort of always been in the market. It’s just that in the port trade we believe that we can get a greater complexity in the wine from blending various different properties. Single quinta ports are very interesting wines, but they are inherently slightly less complex and slightly less structured than vintage ports.
On the other hand, we make Quinta do Vesuvio which is released every year, no matter whether the year was declared or not. Vesuvio is slightly a case apart because the property itself is so very big. The whole vineyard is 400 plus hectares. Inside it we have 4 or 5 individual microclimates and so the Vesuvio vintage is a blend of the different areas. Because the property itself is huge the wine — even though it’s a single quinta — it’s actually closer to vintage port. We also make Warre’s Quinta do Cavadinha and Graham’s Quinta dos Malvedos. The wines are fantastic. But they do not have that extra degree of complexity and depth that comes from the climate of the declared year.

- What styles of port have the biggest demand?

- Port consumption varies by country. In Northern Europe and the colder climates people drink the younger, more full-bodied ruby family of ports. Southern European markets tend to drink more tawny styles — the more delicate, the lighter, aged in barrel for a long time. If we take separate nations, France is 90 percent tawny and the UK is probably 80% ruby style ports.

- Russia is still very small. At the moment total exports of Portugal to Russia are about 10,000 cases. The larger part of that is the ruby family of ports. Although we are talking about very small volumes in real terms, for the past five years there is an annual 10-15% increase. It is a significant step up and we recognize fantastic potential. This is my first visit and I will have the pleasure of being back here at least once or twice a year. Port’s quite a complicated and it’s important that people can understand it. I’m going to run tastings and educate people about port.
I think the potential of the port to be successful in Russia is very high. Historically and by culture there was a market for port in Russia. There was always a tendency to drink rich, full-bodied, quite sweet wines.